Sakura Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
by percabeth4eva2014
Summary: Sakura your ordinary teen life is change when Sasuke comes into her life to tell her she is a vampire queen. But Sakura doesn't believe him so Sasuke has to convince her. During the whole processes the two of them fall in love.What will sakura do? Marry Sasuke and become a vampire queen are will she stay in her normal life and possible start a vampire war between two powerful clans
1. Seeing him

Sakura Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

**Warning sexual content in later chapters and sasusaku parings. This is also a vampire fic. You have been **_**warned.**_

The first time I saw him, a heavy, gray fog clung to the cornfields, tails of mist slithering between the dying stalks. It was dreary early morning right after Labor Day, and I was waiting for the school bus, just minding my own business standing at the end of the dirt lane that connected my family's farmhouse to the main road into town.

I was thinking about how many dozen times I'd probably wait like any mathlete would, by doing calculations in my head, when I noticed him.

And suddenly that familiar stretch of blacktop seemed awfully desolate.

He was standing under a massive beech tree across the road from the road from me, his arms crossed over his chest. The tree's low, gnarled branches twisted down around him, nearly concealing him in limbs and leaves and shadows. But it was obvious that he was tall and wearing a long dark coat, almost the_ middle of nowhere, wearing a black cloak?_

He must have realized I'd spotted him because he shifted a little, like he was deciding whether to leave. Or maybe cross the road. It had never struck me how vulnerable I'd been all those mornings I'd waited out there alone, but the realization hit me hard then.

I glanced down the road, heart thudding._ Where is the stupid bus? And why did my dad have to be big on transit anyhow? But no, I had to "share the ride" to save the environment. When I'm abducted by the menacing guy under the tree, dad will probably insist my face only appear on recycled milk cartons…_

In the precious split second I wasted being angry at my father , the stranger really did move in my direction , stepping out from under the tree , and I could have sworn –just as the bus, thank god , crested the rise about fifty yards down the road- I could have sworn I heard him say, "Sakura"

_My old name …The name I'd been given at birth (Sakura Haruno), in Eastern Europe, before I'd been adopted and brought to Asia rechristened Saku Haru…_

Or maybe I was hearing thing, because the word was drowned out by the sound of tires hissing on wet pavement, grinding gears, and the whoosh of the doors as the doors as the driver, old Mr. Paul put the bus in gear, and I stumbled down the aisle, searching for an empty or a friendly face among the half-groggy riders. It sucked sometimes; living in rural Penn's (made up place). The town's kids were probably still sleeping, safe and sound in their beds.

Locating a spot at the very back of the bus. I plopped down with a rush of relief. Maybe I'd overreacted. Maybe my imagination had run wild, or too many episodes of _Americas Most Wanted _had messed with my head. Or maybe the stranger really had meant harm … Twisting around; I peeredout the rear window, and my heart sank.

He was still there there, but in the road now, booted feet planted on either side of the double yellow line, arms still crossed, watching the bus drive away. Watching me.

"_Sakura…"_

Had I really heard him call me by that long -forgotten name?

And if he knew that obscure fact, what else did the dark stranger, receding in the mist, know about my past?

More to the point , what did he want with me in the present?


	2. Seeing old friends

Sakura Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

**Previously-**Had I really heard him call me by that long -forgotten name?

And if he knew that obscure fact, what else did the dark stranger, receding in the mist, know about my past?

More to the point , what did he want with me in the present?

**Enjoy!**

…

"So that pretty much sums up my summer at camp."My best friend Ino Yamanka sighed pulling open the heavy glass door to Woodrow Wilson High School. "Homesick kids, sunburn, poison ivy, and big spiders in the showers."

"Sounds like being a counselor was awful ." I sympathized as we entered the familiar hallway, which smelled of cleanser and fresh floor wax. "If it helps, I gained at least five pounds waitressing at the diner. I just kept eating pie every time I got a break."

"You look great." Ino waved off my complaint. 'Although I'm not sure about your hair…" "Hey!" I protested, smoothing down my pink unruly curls which did seem rebelling in the late-summer humidity. "I'll have you know I spent an hour with a hair dryer and this 'straightening balm' that cost me a week tips…" I trailed off, realizing that Ino was distracted, not listening to me. I followed her gaze down the hall and toward the lockers. "And speaking of looking great." She said

Naruto Uzumaki, who lived on a farm near my family's place, was struggling with his new locker combination. Frowning at a scrap of paper in his hand, he spun the lock and rattled the handle. An obviously brand-new white T-shirt made his summer tan look especially deep. The sleeves hugged tight around bulging biceps.

"Naruto looks amazing." Ino whispered as we approached my neighbor. "He must have joined a gym or something. And did he get highlights?"

"He lugged hay bales all summer in the sun, Ino,'" I whispered back. "He doesn't need a gym –or bleach in his hair."Naruto glanced up as we walked past, and smiled when he saw me. "Hey, Saku."

"Hey." I replied. Then my mind went blank.

Ino chimed in, preventing an awkward silence. "Looks like they gave you the wrong locker combination," she noted, nodding at Naruto's still-closed locker. "Did you try kicking it?"

Naruto ignored the suggestion. "You didn't work last night, huh Saku?"

"No I'm done at the diner." I said. "It was just a summer job."

Naruto looked a little disappointed. "Oh. Well , I guess I'll have to catch up with you around school, then."

"Yeah sure. I'm sure we'll we have some classes together," I said, feeling my cheeks get warm. "See ya." I sort of dragged Ino along with me down the hall.

"What was all that about?" she demanded when we were out of earshot. She glanced over her shoulder at Naruto. My face grew warmer. "What was what all that about?"

"Naruto looking all sad that you quit the diner. You turn bright red-."

"It's nothing," I advised her. "He came in a few times near the end of my shift and gave me a ride home. We hung out a little … and I am _not_ red."

"Really?" Ino smile was smug. "You and Naruto, huh?"

"It was no big deal." I insisted.

The gleam in Ino eyes told me she knew I wasn't being completely honest. "This is going to be a interesting year," she predicted.

"And speaking of interesting …" I started to tell my best friend about the scary stranger at the bus stop. But the moment I thought of him , the hair on the back of my neck prickled, almost like I was being watched.

"_Sakura…"_

The low, deep voice echoed in my brain, like a half- remembered nightmare.

I rubbed the back of my neck. Maybe I would tell Ino the story later. Or maybe the whole thing would just blow over and I'd never even think about the guy again.

That was probably what would happen.

Yet the prickly sensation didn't go away.


	3. First class

Sakura Guide to dating on the dark side

_Sorry for not updating my laptop has been down for a while I'll try updating every weekend._

"This is going to be such an exciting class," Mrs. Wilhelm promised, bubbling over with enthusiasm as she handed out the reading list for Senior English Literature: Shakespeare to Stoker. "You are all going to love the classics I've selected. Prepare yourselves for a year of epic quests, heart-stopping romances, and the clashes of great armies. All with without ever leaving Woodrow Wilson High school."

Apparently not everybody was as ecstatic about clashing armies and thumping hearts as Mrs. Willelm, because I heard a lot of groans as the reading list circulated through the class. I accepted my copy from my longtime tormentor Kiba Inuzaka, who'd plopped into the seat in front of me like a massive, gooey spitball, and did a quick survey. _Oh no, Not_ Ivanhoe. _And _Moby Dick … _who had time to for Moby Dick?_

This was supposed to be the year I had a social life. Not to mention Dracula …please. If there was one thing I hated, it was spooky fairytales with no basis in reality or logic. That was my parents' territory, and I had no interest going there.

Stealing a quick look across the aisle at Ino, I saw panic and misery in her eyes too as she whispered, "What does 'wuthering' mean?"

"No idea," I whispered back. "We'll look it up." "I also want you to pass around the seating chart,' Mrs. Wilhelm continued, squishing around on her sensible shoes. "The desk you've selected will be your assigned seat for the year. I see some new faces out there, and I want to get to know you all as quickly as possible, so _do not move." _

I slouched in my seat. _Great. _I was destined for a whole year of Kiba Inuzaka moronic, but mean, comments, which I was certain he spew every time he turned to hand something back down the aisle. And legendarily bitchy cheerleader Karin had claimed the seat directly behind me. I was sandwiched between two of the school's nastiest people. At least Ino was across from me. And-I looked back to my left-Naruto had found a desk near mine. He grinned when I met his eyes. It could have been worse, I guess. But not much.

Kiba slid around his chair to toss the seating chart at me. "Here you go Forehead" he sneered, using the named he bestowed on me in kindergarten. "Put that on the chart." Yup. Moronic and mean, just like I'd predicted. And only 180 school days to go.

"At least I can spell my name" I hissed at him. _Jerk._

Inuzaku squirmed back around, scowling. As I dig through my backpack trying to find a pen. When I went to write my name down, my ballpoint pen was bone dry, probably because it had lingered in my backpack all summer long. I gave the pen a shake and tried again. Nothing.

I started turning to my left thing Naruto could loan me a pencil. Before I could ask him, though, I felt a tap on my right shoulder. _Not now… not now … _I considered ignoring it, but the tapper struck me lightly again.

"Excuse me, but are you in need of a writing instrument?" The deep voice with the unusual Euro accent came from close behind me. I had no choice but to turn around.

_No_

It was him. The guy from the bus stop. I would have recognized the strange outfit-long coat, the boots- not to mention his imposing height anywhere. Only this time, he was just a few feet away. Close enough for me to see his eyes. They were so dark as to appear black and were boring into me with a cool, somehow unnerving, intelligence. I swallowed thickly frozen in my seat.

Had he been I class all along? And if so, how could I have failed to notice him?

Maybe because he was sitting sort of apart from the rest of us. Or maybe it was because the very air in his particular corner seemed murky, the fluorescent light directly above his desk snuffed out. But it was more than that. It was almost like he created the darkness.

"You require a writing instrument yes?" he repeated, stretching his arm up the aisle –a long, muscular arm- to offer me a shiny gold pen. You could tell just by the way it glittered that it was expensive. Not the plastic bics that most people used. a real gold pen. When I hesitated, a look of annoyance crosses his aristocratic face, and he shook the pen at me. "You do recognize a pen right? This is a familiar tool yes?"

I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, or the way he'd crept up on me twice in one day, and I kept staring, stupidly, until Karin reached forward and pinched me arm. Hard. "Just sign the chart, Sak, all right?"

"Hey!" I rubbed what would be a bruised, wishing I had the nerve to tell Karin off, both for pinching me and calling me by the wrong name. But the last person who'd tangled with Karin had ended up transferring to Konoha high school. Karin had made her life at this miserable.

"Hurry it up Sak' Karin snapped again

"Okay, okay" reluctantly reaching out to the stranger, I accepted the heavy pen from his hand, and as our fingers touched, I felt the most bizarre sensation ever. Like déjà vu crashing into premonition. The past colliding with the future.

I slid back around, and my hand shook a little as I wrote my name in the seating chart. It was stupid to be freaked out. He was just another student. Obviously a new guy. Maybe he lived somewhere near our farm. He'd probably been waiting for the bus, just like me and missed getting on somehow. His somewhat mysterious appearance in English class-a few feet from me-probably wasn't cause for alarm, either.

I looked to Ino for her opinion. She'd obviously been waiting to make contact. Eyes wide, she jabbed her thumb in the guy's direction, mouthing a very exaggerated, "he's so hot!" "Hot!?" 'You're crazy" I whispered. Yes, the guy was technically good-looking. But he was also totally terrifying with his cloak and boots and ability to materialize near me seemingly out of nowhere. "The chart already!' Karin growled behind me. "Here' I passed the seating chat over my shoulder, getting deep , razor thin cut as impatient Karin snatched the paper from my hand. Fucking bitch.

I shook the stinging bleeding finger, then jabbed it in my mouth, tasting salt on my tongue, before I twisted back around to return the pen. The guy who lend me his pen staring at me finger. 'OH sorry' I said wiping the pen on my leg, for the lack of a tissue. His gaze followed my fingers, and I thought maybe he was revolted by the fact that I was bleeding. Yet I swore I saw something quite different than disgust in those onyx eyes… and then he ran his tongue on his lower lip.

_What the hell was that?_

Tossing the pen at him, I spun around in my seat._ I could change schools, like that girl who messed with Karin. Go to Konoha high school. That the answer. It's not too late…._

The seating chart made its way back to Mrs. Wilhelm, and she read through the names, and then glanced up with a smile that was directed just past my desk. "Let's take a moment to welcome our new foreign exchange student, Sasuke…" frowning, she referred back to her chart. "Uchha…aaawa. Did I say that correctly?" most students would have just muttered, "yeah whatever." I mean, who really cared about a name? my early-morning stalker that's who. "No," he intoned. "No, that is not correct.' Behind me, I heard the scrape of a chair against linoleum, and then a shadow loomed over my shoulder. My neck prickled again.

"Oh." Mrs. Wilhelm looked slightly alarmed as a tall teenager in a black velvet coat advanced up the aisle toward her. She raised a cautionary finger, like she was about to tell him to sit down, but he strode right past her.

Grabbing up a marker from the tray beneath the white board, he flipped off the cap with authority and scrawled the word _Uchiha _in a flowing script.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," he announced, pointing to the word. "U-CHE-HA"

Locking his hands behind his back, he began pacing, as though he was the teacher. One by one, he made eye contact with each student in the room, obviously summing us up. I sensed from the look on his face that we were found wanting somehow.

"The Uchiha name is rather revered in Eastern Europe," he lectured. "A noble name." He paused in his pacing and locked onto _my _eyes. "A royal name."

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Does it not 'ring a bell', as you Americans say?" he asked in the class general. But he was still staring at me.

God his eyes were black.

I flinched away, looking at Ino, who was actually fanning herself, totally oblivious to me. It was like she was under a spell. Everyone was. No one fidgeting, or whispering, or doodling.

Almost against my will, I returned my attention to the teenager who'd hijacked English lit. it was really almost impossible not to watch him Sasuke Uchiha hair was black and defy gravity. He was muscular and lean like a model, too, with high cheekbones, a straight nose, and a strong jaw. And those eyes…

Why wouldn't he quit staring at me?

"Would you care to tell us anything else about yourself?" Mrs. Wilhelm finally suggested.

Sasuke Uchiha spun in his booted heel to face her and capped the pen with a firm snapped. "Not particularly. No." The answer wasn't rude… but he didn't address Mrs. Wilhelm like a student, either.

More like and equal.

"I'm sure we'd love to hear more about your heritage," Mrs. Wilhelm prompted, admitting, "It does sound interesting." But Sasuke Uchiha had returned his attention to me. I slunk down in my chair. _Is everyone noticing this? _"You shall learn more about me in due time" Sasuke said with a smirk. There was also a hint of frustration in his voice, and I had no idea why. But it scared me again. "That is a promise," he added, boring into my eyes. "A promise."

Yet it sounded like threat.

Ok guys thanks for reading my story hope you enjoyed. Thanks guys for reviewing, following and Favor ting my stories! More is to come this weekend!


	4. Stalker or Not?

Sakura Guide to dating on the dark side

"Did you see the foreign guy was looking at you in English lit?" Ino cried when we met up after school. "He's gorgeous, and he is so into you! And he's royalty."

I squeezed her wrist, trying to calm her down. "Ino before you buy a gift for our 'royal' wedding, I have to tell you something scary about the so-called gorgeous guy."

My friend crossed her arms, skeptical. I could tell that Ino had already made up her mind about Sasuke Uchiha, basing her entire opinion on broad shoulders and a strong jaw. "What would you know about him that was scary? We just met him!"

"Actually I saw him earlier this morning." "That it maybe he takes the bus." "But he didn't get on." "So he missed the bus." She shrugged. "That's a stupid, but not scary."

Ino wasn't getting the point at all. "It's weirder than that." I insisted "He was…he was staring at me just as the bus pulled up."

Ino looked puzzled.

"My old name," I clarified.

My best friend sucked in her breath. "Okay. That could be a little weird." She said looking like she was considering what I just said. "Nobody knows that name. Nobody."

In fact I haven't shared much of my past with Ino. The story of my adoption was a closely guarded story. If It ever got out…people would think I'm a freak. I felt like a freak every time I thought about the story. My adoptive mother, a cultural anthropologist, had been studying an off the wall underground cult in central Romania. She'd been there with my dad to observe their rituals, in hopes of writing one of her groundbreaking insider journal articles about unique subcultures. However, things had gone wrong over in Eastern Europe. The cult had been a little to strange, a little too off beat, and some Romanian villagers had banded together, deciding to end that cult. By force.

Just before the mob, attacked, my birth parents had entrusted me, and infant, to the visiting American researchers, begging them to take me to the United States, where I would be safe.

I hated that story. Hated the fact that my birth parents had been ignorant, and superstitious people duped into joining a cult.

I didn't even want to know what the rituals were. I knew the kind of things my mom studied. Animal sacrifices, tree worship, virgins tossed into volcanoes…maybe my birth parents had been involved in some deviant sexual stuff. Maybe that's why they were murdered.

Who knew? _Who wanted to know?_

I didn't ask for details and my adoptive parents never push the issue. I was just happy to be Saku Haru, American. Sakura Haruno didn't exist, as far as I was concerned.

"Are you sure he knew your name" Ino asked in concern.

"No." I admitted. "But thought I heard it."

"Oh, Saku" Ino sighed. "Nobody knows that name. You probably just imagined the whole thing. Or else he said a word that sounded like Sakura."

"I don't know. How about 'nice to meetcha?'"

"Yeah, right." But that did kind of make me laugh. We walked toward the street to wait for my mom to pick me up. I had called at lunch to tell her I was _not_ taking the bus home.

Ino added her last two cents. "I'm just saying maybe you should give this Sasuke person a chance.'

"Why?"

"Because…Because he's so tall!" Ino explained, like height was proof of good character. "And did I mention European?"

My mom rusty old VW van rattled up the curb, and I waved to her. "Yes. It's so much better to be stalked by a tall European then an average American guy of average height."

"Well, at least Sasuke is paying attention to you." Ino sniffed. "Nobody ever pays attention to me." We reached the van, and I opened the door. Before I could even say hi Ino shoved me aside, leaned in, and blurted, "SAKU HAS A BOYFRIEND, !"

Mom looked puzzled. "Is that true Saku?"

It was my turn to shove Ino out of the way. I climbed in and slammed the door, shutting my friend safely on the other side. Ino waved, laughing, as mom and I pulled away from the curb.

"A boyfriend, Saku?" Mom asked again. "On the first day of school?"

"He's not my boyfriend," I grumbled clicking on my seat belt. "He's a creepy foreign exchange student from Romania who has been stalking me." "Saku you're probably just over exaggerating." "Male adolescents are frequently socially awkward. You're probably misinterpreting innocent behaviors."

Like all cultural anthropologists, Mom believed she knew everything about human social interactions. "You didn't see him at the bus stop this morning." I argued. "He was standing there in this black cloak with black combat boots on…and then when my finger bled, he licked his slip…"

When I said that mom hit her brakes so hard hat my head nearly smacked the dashboard. A car behind us honked angrily.

"Mom! What was that about?"

"Sorry, Saku," she said, looking a little pale. She stepped on the gas again. "It was just something you said…about getting cut."

"I cut my finger, and he practically drooled over it, like it was ketchup-covered French fry," I shuddered. "It was so gross."

Mom grew paler, and I knew something was up. "Who…who was this boy?" she asked as we pulled up to a stop sign near Grantely College, where my mom taught, where my mom taught. "What's his name?"

I could tell she was trying hard to sound unconcerned, and that made me more nervous.

"His name is…" Before I could say Sasuke, though, I spotted him. Sitting on the low wall that surrounded the campus.

And he was watching me. Again. Sweat broke out on my forehead. But this time, I was pissed. _Enough is enough, already._ "He's right there," I cried, jabbing my finger at the window. "He's staring at me again!" It was not 'socially awkward behavior.' It was stalking. "I want him to leave me alone!"

Then my mom something unexpected. She pulled over to the curb, right next to where Sasuke waited, watching. "What's his name Saku?" "Sasuke," I answered. "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Oh, goodness," Mom muttered, looking past me at my stalker. "I suppose this really was inevitable…" she had a queer, distant look in her eyes.

"Mom?" _What was inevitable?_

"Wait here?" she said, still not looking at me. "Do not move" she ordered. She sounded so serious I didn't even protest. Without another word she got out of the van, and strode towards the tall guy who has been menacing me all day. Was she crazy? Would he try to run away? Go berserk and hurt her? But no, he slipped off the wall and bowed-a real bow, at the waist-to my mother. _What the…_

I rolled down the window, but they spoke so softly I couldn't hear what they were saying. The conversation went on for what seem like eons. And then my mother shook his hand.

Sasuke Uchiha turned to go, and mom got back in the van and turned the key.

"What was all that about?" I asked dumbfounded.

My mother looked me straight in the eye and said, "You, your father, and I need to talk. Tonight."

"About what?" I demanded a prickly feeling in the pit of my stomach. A bad prickle. "Do you know that guy?" "We'll explain later. We have so much, so much to tell you. And we need to do it before Sasuke arrives for dinner."

My jaw was still on the floor when mom patted my hand and pulled out into traffic.


	5. First conversafight?

Sakura Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

My parents never got a chance to explain what was happening, though. When we got home, dad was in the middle of teaching tantric yoga class for oversexed, over-the-hill hippies, out in the studio behind the house, so mom told me to go ahead with my chores.

And then Sasuke arrived early for dinner.

I was in the barn mucking out stalls when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow cross the open barn door.

"Who's there?" I called nervously, still jumpy from the day's events.

When there was no answer, I got the bad feeling my visitor was our dinner guest. _Mom invited him, _I reminded myself as, sure enough, a tall European exchange student strode across the dusty riding ring. _He can't be that dangerous._

Mom's endorsement aside, I kept a firm hold on my pitchfork. "What are you doing here?" I demanded as he approached.

"Manners, manners," Sasuke complained in his snooty accent, kicking up little puffs of dusts with each long stride. He arrived within few feet of me, and I struck again by his height. "A lady doesn't bellow across barns," he continued. "And what sort of salutation was that?" _Is the guy who spied on me all day lecturing me on etiquette? _

"I asked you why you are here." I repeated, clutching the pitchfork a little tighter.

"To become acquainted, of course," he said, continuing to appraise me, actually circling me, and staring at my clothes. I spun around, trying to keep him in view, and caught him wrinkling his nose. "Surely you're eager to get to know me too."

_Not really…_ I had no idea what he was talking about, but the head-to-toe of my person was not cool. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

He stopped circling me. "Are you cleaning stalls? Is that feces on your shoes?"

"Yeah," I said, confused by his tone. _Why did he care what is on my shoe? "_ I muck the stalls every night."

"You?" he seemed baffled-and appalled.

"Somebody has to do it," I said. _Why does he think this is his business?_

"Yes, well, we have people for that, where I come from. Hired help." He sniffed. "You-a lady of your stature- should never do such menial chore. It's offensive."

When he said that, my fingers tightened again on the pitchfork- and not out of fear. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't just intimidating. He was infuriating. "Look, I've about had it with you creeping up on me, and your attitude,' I snapped. 'Who do you think you are, anyhow? And why are you following me?" he shook his head. " vowed that she would tell you everything. Your parents are not so good at keeping promises."

"We…we're supposed to talk later," I stammered, my outrage anger fading a little in the face of his obvious anger. "Dad's teaching yoga…"

"Yoga?" Sasuke gave a harsh laugh. 'Contorting his frame into a series of ridiculous configurations is more important than informing his daughter about the pact? And what manner of man practices such a pacifist pastime? Men should train for war, not waste their time chanting 'om' and blathering about inner peace."

_Forget the yoga and the blathering. "_Pact? What pact?"

But Sasuke was staring at the beamed ceiling of the barn, pacing around, hands clasped behind his back, muttering to himself. "This is not going well. Not going well at all. I advised the Elders that you should have been summoned back to Romania years ago, that you would never be a suitable bride…"

_Whoa, there. _ "Bride?"

Sasuke paused, turning on his heel to face me. "I grow weary of your ignorance." He moved closer to me, leaning down and peering into my eyes. "Because your parents refuse to inform you, I will deliver the news myself, and I shall make this simple for you." He pointed to his chest and announced, as though talking to a child, "I am a vampire." He pointed to my chest. "You are a vampire. And we are to be married, the moment you come of age. This has been decreed since our births."

I couldn't even process the "getting married "part or the thing about "decreed." He'd lost me at "vampire."

_Nuts. Sasuke Uchiha is completely nuts. And I'm alone with him, in an empty barn._

So I did what any sane person would do. I jammed the pitchfork in the general direction of his foot and ran like hell for the house, ignoring his yowl of pain.


	6. Explaing vampires 6 pt1

"I am so not undead," I wailed.

But if course, no one paid attention. My parents were too focused on Sasuke Uchiha injured foot.

"Sasuke, sit down," Mom ordered, looking none too happy with either of us.

"I prefer to stand," Sasuke replied.

Mom pointed firmly at the ring of chairs around the kitchen table. "Sit._ Now."_

Our injured visitor hesitated like he was going to disobey, then, muttering under his breath, took a chair. Mom yanked off his boot, which bore the visible imprint of a pitchfork tine, while my dad puttered about the kitchen, searching under the sink for the first aid kit while he waited for the herbal tea to brew.

"It's just bruised," Mom announced.

"Oh, good." Dad crawled out from under the sink. "I can't find the bandages, anyway. But we can still have tea."

The lanky self-proclaimed bloodsucker who had commandeered _my _seat at the kitchen table glared at me. "You are very lucky that my cobbler uses only the finest leather. You could have impaled me. And you do _not_ want to impale a vampire. More to the point, is that any way to greet your future husband –or any guest, for that matter? With a pitchfork?"

"Sasuke," my mother interrupted. "You did catch Saku off guard. As I explained to you earlier, her father and I wanted to speak to her first."

"Yes well, you certainly lingered over the task-for seventeen years. Someone had to take charge." Sasuke pulled his foot from Mom's grasp and stood up, limping around the kitchen with one boot on, frowned.

"You _drink_ this?"

"You'll like it," Dad promised. He poured four mugs. "It's very soothing in a stressful time like this."

"Enough with the tea. Just tell me what's going on," I begged, sitting down to reclaim my chair from Sasuke. It wasn't warm at all. Almost like no one had been there just moments before. "Anybody. Please. Fill me in."

"As your parents wish, I will relinquish that duty to them," Sasuke conceded. He lifted his steaming mug to his lips, sipped, and shuddered. "Good god, that's foul."

Ignoring Sasuke, Mom shared a knowing glance with my dad, like they had a secret. "Kizaka…what do you think?"

Apparently he understood what she was hinting at,, because Dad nodded and said, "I'll get the scroll," then left the kitchen.

"Scroll?" _Scrolls. Pacts. Brides. Why is everyone talking in code? _"What scroll?"

"Oh, dear." Mom sat in the chair next to mine and cradled my hands. "This is rather complicated."

"Try." I urged.

"You've always known that you are adopted from Romania," Mom began. "And that your birth parents were killed in a village conflict."

"Murdered by peasants." Sasuke scowled. "Superstitious people, given to forming vicious hordes." He unscrewed the lid on Dad's organic peanut butter wiped his finger on his pants, which were black and hugged his long legs, almost like riding breeches. "Please tell me there's _something_ palatable in this house."

Mom turned to address Sasuke. "I'm going to ask you to stay quiet for a few minutes while I tell the story."

Sasuke bowed slightly, his glossy blue-black hair gleaming under the kitchen lamp. "Of course. Continue."

Mom returned her attention to me. "But we didn't tell you the whole story, because the topic seemed to upset you so much."

"Now might be a good time," I suggested. "I couldn't get much more upset."

Mom sipped her tea and swallowed. "Yes, well, the truth is, your birth parents were destroyed by an angry mob trying to rid their village of vampires."

"Vampires?" Surely she was joking.

"Yes," Mom confirmed. "Vampires. Your parents were among the vampires I was studying at the time."

Okay, now it was not uncommon to hear words like _fairy_ or _earth sprits_ or even _troll_ in my house. I mean, folk culture and legends were my mom's research interest, and my dad had been known to host the occasional "angel communication" seminar in his yoga studio. But surely even my flaky parents didn't believe in Hollywood _movie monsters_. They couldn't have honestly believed that my birth parents had turned into bats, or dissolved in sunlight, or grew big fangs. _Could they?_

"You said you were studying some type of cult," I countered. "A subculture that had some unusual rituals…but you never said anything about _vampires_."

"You have always been very logical, Saku," Mom said. "You do not like things that cannot be explained by math or science. Your father and I were afraid the truth about your birth parents might deeply disturb you. So we kept things…vague."

"You're saying my birth parents actually thought they were vampires?" I sort of yelped.

Mom nodded. "Well…yes."

"They didn't just _think_ they were vampires," Sasuke grumbled. He'd retrieved his boot and was hopping around on one foot, attempting to put it on. "They were _vampires."_

As I gawked at our guest in disbelief, the most disgusting thought in the world crossed my mind. Those rituals my mom had alluded to, related to my birth parents… "They didn't…actually _drink blood_…"

The expression on mom's face said it all, and I though_t I might pass out. My birth parents: deviant_, disturbed blood drinkers.

"Tasty, tasty, stuff," Sasuke commented. "You wouldn't, perchance, have any here, in lieu of this tea-"

Mom shot him a look.

Sasuke frowned. "No. I suppose not."

"People do not drink blood," I insisted, my voice spiking kind of high. "And vampires do not exist!"

Sasuke crossed his arms, glowering. "Excuse me. I'm right here."

"Sasuke please," Mom said in a calm but serious tone she reserved for hard-to-control students. "Give Saku time to process. She has an analytical bent that makes her resistant to the paranormal."


	7. Explaing Vampires 6 pt 2

"I'm resistant to the impossible," I cried. "The unreal."

At this low point, Dad returned with a mildewed scroll cradled in his hands. "Historically, a lot of people are resistant to the idea of the undead," Dad noted, carefully placing the document on the table. "And the late 1980s were an especially lousy time for vampires in Romania. Big purges every few months. Lots of very nice vampires eliminated."

"Your birth parents-who were quite powerful within their subculture- realized that they were likely marked destruction and entrusted you to us before they were killed, hoping we could keep you safe in the United States," Mom added.

"People don't drink blood," I repeated. "They don't. You didn't see my parents act like vampires, did you," I challenged. "You never saw them grow fangs and bite necks? I know you didn't. Because it didn't happen."

"No," mom admitted, taking my hands again. "We were not allowed that kind of access."

"Because it didn't happen," I repeated.  
>"No," Sasuke interjected. "Because biting is very private, very intimate. You don't just invite people to watch. Vampires are a sensual race but not given to exhibitionism, for god's sake. We're discreet."<p>

"But we have no reason to believe anyone lied to us about drinking blood," Mom in added. "And it's nothing to be upset about, Saku. It was quite normal to them. Had you grown up Romania in that subculture, it would have seemed ordinary to you too."

I yanked my hands away. "I really don't think so."

With a deep sigh, Sasuke resumed pacing. "Honestly, I can't stand this going around anymore. The story is quite simple. You, Sakura, are the last of a long line of powerful vampires. The Haruno's. Vampire royalty."

Now that made me laugh a squeaky, kind of hysterical laugh. "Vampire royalty. Right."

"Yes. Royalty. And that is the last part of the story, which your parents still seem reluctant to relate." Sasuke leaned over the table across from me, bracing his arms, staring down me down. "You are a vampire princess-the heir to the Haruno leadership. I am a vampire prince. The heir to an equally powerful clan, the Uchiha. More powerful, I would say, but that's not the point. We were pledged to each other in an engagement ceremony shortly after our births."

I looked to my mom for help, but all she said was, "The ceremony was quite dramatic, very elaborate."

"In an enormous cave in Carpathians," Dad added. "With candles everywhere." He gazed at my mom with loving admiration. "No other outsider ever had such access."

I glared at them. "You were _there_? At this ceremony?"

"Oh, we met lots of vampires on that trip and saw so many interesting cultural events." Mom smiled a little, remembering. "You should read my search summary in the _Journal of Eastern European Folk Culture. _It was rather landmark insider work, if I do say so myself."

"Let me finish, please," Sasuke grumbled.

"Easy there," Dad chided gently. "In this little democracy, everybody gets a chance to speak."

From the disdainful look on Sasuke shot my dad, I could tell he didn't care much for democracy. The delusional Dracula wannabe resumed pacing. "The betrothal ceremony sealed our destines, Sakura. We are to be married soon after you come of age. Our bloodlines united, consolidating our clans' strength and ending years of rivalry and warfare." His black eyes gleamed, and his gaze drifted far away. "It shall be a glorious moment in our history, when we ascend to power. Five million vampires –your family, my family combined- all under our rule." My so-called betrothed snapped back to reality and glanced at me, sniffing, and "I'll do all the 'heavy lifting,' of course, leadership-wise

"You're all insane," I declared, staring from one face to the next. "This is crazy."

Moving closer to me, Sasuke crouched so we were face to face. For the first time, I saw curiosity, not disdain or mockery, or raw power, in his dark eyes. "Would it be so repugnant, really, Sakura? To be with me?"

I wasn't sure what he meant, but I though he was talking about… the two of us together, not in a bid for political power, but in a romantic way.


	8. Explaing Vampires 6pt 3

I didn't say anything. Did Sasuke Uchiha really think I would fall for him, just because he had a handsome face? A killer body? That I would care that he smelled like the sexiest, spiciest cologne I'd ever sniffed…

"Let's show her the scroll," Dad interrupted, breaking the moment.

"Yes, it's time," Mom agreed.

I had almost forgotten the musty paper, but now Dad sat down and carefully unrolled the scroll on the kitchen table. The brittle paper crackled as he smoothed it with gentle fingers. The words- Romania, presumably-were unintelligible to me, but it looked like some sort of legal document, with lots of signatures at the bottom. I shifted my gaze, refusing to look any closer at a bunch of nonsense.

"I shall translate," Sasuke volunteered, standing up. "Unless of course, Sakura studied her Romanian?"

"It's next on my to-do list," I said through gritted teeth,.

_Multilingual show-off._

"You a would be wise to start learning, my future bride," Sasuke replied, edging even closer and leaning over my shoulder to read. I could feel his breath on my cheek. It was unnaturally cool, sweet. Against my better judgment, I kept inhaling that unusual cologne, too, drawing it deep into my lungs. Sasuke was so closed that my curly pink hair brushed against his jaw, and he absently swept the stray locks away, the back of his fingers razing my cheek. I jolted at the touch. The sensations hit me, right in the pit of my stomach.

If Sasuke felt the same shock I did, he didn't betray it as he focused intently on the document. _Am I getting dizzy from sniffing cologne? Imaging things?_

I shifted slightly in my chair, trying not to touch him, as our arrogant visitor ran his finger beneath the first line of the scroll. "This declares that you, Sakura Haruno, are promised marriage to me, Sasuke Uchiha, shortly after the achievement of your maturity age of eighteen, and that all parties in witness agree to this covenant. And upon the marriage, our clans shall be united and at peace." He leaned back. "As I said, it's quite simple, really. And see: your adoptive father's signature. And your mother's."

I couldn't resist glancing when he said, that, and sure enough, Mom and Dad's scrawled signatures were on the documents, amid dozens of unfamiliar Romanian names. _Traitors._ Shoving the scroll away, I crossed my arms and glared at my parents. "How could you promise me away like…like…a prize cow?"

"We didn't 'promise you away' Saku" Mom soothed. "

"You weren't our daughter then. We were merely there to witness a unique ritual, in the interest of research. This was weeks before the purge, weeks before we adopted you. We had no idea what the future held for any of us."

"Besides, no one promises cows," Sasuke scoffed. "Who would promise cattle? You are a vampire princess. Your destiny is not entirely your own."

_Princess…He honestly thinks I'm a vampire princess…_

The strange, almost pleasurable, sensation I'd felt when he'd brushed my cheek was forgotten as reality hit me again. Sasuke Uchiha was a lunatic.

"If I were a vampire, I'd want to bite someone. I'd be thirsty for blood," I said in a last ditch attempt to interject reason into a discussion that had developed into the absurd.

"You will come into your true nature," Sasuke promised. "You are coming of age right now. And when I bite you for the first rime, _then_ you will be a vampire. I've brought you a book- a guide, so to speak- which will explain everything-"

I stood up so fast my chair tipped over, smashing to the floor. "He is not going to bite me." I interrupted, pointing a shaky finger at Sasuke. "And I'm not going to Romanian and marrying him! I don't care what kind of 'betrothal ceremony' they had!" "You will all honor the pack," Sasuke growled. It wasn't a suggestion.

"Now don't get dictatorial on us, Sasuke," Dad urged, kicking back in his chair and stroking his beard. "I told you. This is a democracy. Let's just all just take a deep breath. Like Ghandi said, 'We must become the change we want to see."

Sasuke had clearly never grappled with a master of passive resistance before, because he seemed genuinely caught off-guard by Dad's firm, yet mellow, and totally off-killer, assessment of the situation. "What does that even mean?" he finally asked.

"No one's making decisions today," Mom translated. It's late, and we're all tired and a little overwhelmed. Besides Sasuke, Saku is not ready to contemplate marriage. She hasn't even kissed a boy yet, for goodness' sake."

Sasuke smirked at me, raising one eyebrow. "Really? No suitor? How shocking. I would have thought your pitchfork skills would be attractive to certain bachelors here in farm country."

I wanted to die. Die right there. I wanted to run to the knife drawer, grab the biggest blade I could find, and plunge it into my heart. To be exposed as never even being kissed…it was almost worse than being a vampire princess. The vampire thing was a ridiculous fantasy, but my total lack of experience…that was real. "Mom! That is so embarrassing! Did you have to tell him that?"

"Well Saku, it's true. I don't want Sasuke thinking you're some sort if experienced young woman, ready for marriage",

"I shan't take advantage," Sasuke promised seriously. "And she can't be forced into a marriage, of course. It is a new century. Unfortunately, But I am afraid that I am compelled to pursue this courtship until Sakura realizes her place at my side. As she will."

"I will not."

Sasuke totally brushed this off. "The linkage of our clans is mandated by the oldest, most powerful member: the Elders of the Uchiha and Haruno families. And the Elders always get their way."

Mom stood. "It will be Saku decision, Sasuke."

"Of course." The condescending half-smile on Sasuke face said otherwise, though. "Now where shall I stay?"

"Stay?" Dad blinked, confused.

"Yes. Sleep," Sasuke clarified. I've had a long journey, endured my first stultifying day at the so called public school here, and I'm weary."

"You're not going back to school," I objected, panicking. I'd forgotten about school. "You just can't!"

"Of course I shall attend school." Sasuke replied.

"How did you enroll?" Mom asked

"I'm here on what's called a 'student visa'. Sasuke explained. "The Elders thought it would be difficult to explain my extend presence here otherwise. Vampires don't like to raise suspicions, as you can imagine. We like to blend in."


	9. Important Message

Message to Readers

First of all people my story is base on Jessica guide to dating on the dark side but I didn't take the whole story I took bits and pieces and so what if I did take the whole story the viewers are enjoying at the end of the book ill credit everybody so don't threaten me.


	10. 1st Letter

**DEAR UNCLE MADARA,**

_I write to you from my "loft" above the Harus' rundown garage, where I am housed, not unlike some sort of unwanted automobile or forgotten piece of luggage, no doubt breathing in stale vehicle exhaust day and night._

_Although here only a few weeks, how I mourn the rugged splendor of the Carpathians, the way the wolves howl in the night, chilling and beautiful. Only when one is in a place that completely lacks danger or mystery can one understand how profoundly the dark places of the world can be missed._

_But of course I realize that I am not here for the entertainment, the arts, or the architecture._

_But the girls, Madara. The girl. Imagine my shock at finding my future wife –my "princess"- knee-deep in animal waste, barking at me from across a barn and then attempting to stab me in the foot with a farm implement, like a demented stable hand. _

_Regardless. She is rude. She is uncooperative. She lacks any appreciation of her culture- and certainly of her by the simple fact of her birth._

_In sum, Saku Haru is not a vampire. Living in America seems to cleansed our future princess of all traces if the royal blood that we know must have coursed through her veins at birth. She has undergone a terrible cultural dialysis, so to speak._

_And her fashion sense… how many manifestations of denim can there be? And the T-shirts with the horses and the arithmetic-related "puns"… is it really "Hip2b"? Would it hurt to wear a dress now and then?_

_Madara, I realize that I am honor bound to form a relationship with this young woman, but really, can she lead our regions? And as for the two of us sharing any sort of physical intimacy… well, any details you can provide regarding my responsibilities toward that end would be grateful appreciate._

_In the meantime, I shall continue my thus far fruitless efforts educate aand engage this impossible American female, in that order. But please, Madara- do consider my concerns._

_Your nephew, duty bound,_

_Sasuke Uchiha_

_P.S. I've been recruited for basketball. The coach thinks I might start!_


	11. Studying

"I can't do it," Ino complained, scratching out yet another wrong answer.

"These problems are not that hard," I said glad that this was the last year I'd have to tutor Ino in math. Calculus was totally stumping her, and we were getting on each other's nerves. It probably didn't help that my bedroom was insanely hot. No matter how much I begged Dad refused to install air-conditioning, saying it wasted energy. I picked up a textbook and began reading. "Two men are traveling by trains, which leave the station-"

"Nobody uses trains anymore," Ino nitpicked. "Why do we always have to talk about trains? Why not planes?" I glanced up from my text book. "You are impossible to teach."

Ino snapped her notebook shut. "Speaking of teaching, how about Sasuke in class today? Mrs. Wilhelm about had an orgasm when he stood up and gave that big talk on _Hamlet." _She paused. "He did make it almost interesting, for a play about Denmark."

"Getting back to the problem…"

"Where is Sasuke anyway?" Ino abandoned calculus entirely, hopping on my bed to look out the open window. She pulled the curtains aside. "Sasuke!" she yelled

"Please don't summon him," I requested, meaning it

"Just a little peek a little peek at his sexy black eyes…" Ino leaned way out in the window. "Hey, somebody's coming. There's a truck on the road."

"Who is it?" I asked, not really caring. It was probably one of Dad's yoga students, early for class. I heard the sound of tires on gravel, then an engine cutting off.

My best friend spun around, dropping the curtain. "Naruto. It's Naruto's blue truck. He pulled in nest to the house barn."

I tried to act nonchalant. "Oh, that's just our hay delivery. We buy from Naruto farm. He'll unload it and be gone in a few minutes."

"Oh." Ino processed this, then whirled back around, stuck her head out the window and yelled were coming down. _No she did not just do that._ Ino! I'm wearing a shirt with a hole in it. I don't have any makeup on!"

"You look gorgeous." She overrode my protests, tugging me by the arm. "Besides, I told him were coming down"

As we stepped outside I notice he was shirtless. I blushes at his flexing muscles as he moved the hay. "He's shirtless," she whispered, hauling me across the yard toward Naruto truck. He was standing in the back.

He notices us. "Hey what are you guys up to?" Naruto smiled, pausing in his work. He pulled a red bandanna from the pocket of his worn jeans and wiped the sweat from his forehead. His bicep bowed and complete six-pack of abs flexed, glistening slickly in the setting sun.

"We were just studying calculus," I said, shifting my arm to hide the hole in my shirt. The hole was position right over my stomach. This still bulged from my summer of diner pie.

"You want to come in for a drink when you're done?" Ino offered like it was her house.

"Yeah sure" Naruto agreed with a grin. "Just let me finish unloading the hay."

Ino yanked my wrist signaling that we should go inside to wait. "You should change your shirt." She offered while softly giggling as I ran up the stairs.

But as I turned around to head to the house, I caught a glimpse of a Romanian foreign exchange student leaning against the side of the garage, arms crossed over his chest.

Maybe it was a trick of the slanting, fading light, which cast harsh shadows on his angular face, but he did not look pleased.

'

,


	12. Lunch Period

Chapter 9

"Tomorrow you are on your own, no matter what Mom says about helping you adjust," I warned Sasuke, who was trailing me through the lunch line, dismissing every offering. "You know the system by now."

"Oh, yes" he said, pushing his tray along with one finger like it was toxic. "Line people up like cattle in a chute, present them with food fit for livestock, and force them to consume it hunched over, shoulder to shoulder, at trough like tables."

"Just get something," I groaned, taking his fingers on my wrist were strong. And so cool. "Saku…is that meat? But your parent's prohibition…"

"What Mom and Dad don't know about school won't hurt them," I warned, shaking off his hand and shoving my tray along. I rubbed my wrist, warming it. "So don't say anything."

"How insubordinate and seditious of you." Sasuke smirked.

"By the way, where'd you get the drink?" I asked, pointing to his tray, which held a huge plastic cup emblazoned with the logo **ORANGE JULIUS**. "You're not allowed to go off campus,, you know."

"Ahh, the terrors of detention." Sasuke sighed, lifting the cup to sip through the fat straw. Red, clotted liquid advanced forward. He swallowed with satisfaction. "Not enough to deter me from the pleasure of a 'Strawberry Julius.' I fear I'm addicted."

"You should toss that out, I said reaching for the cup. "Seriously if you get caught…"

Sasuke swiped the drink away before I could touch it. "I think not. And I strongly urge you not to spill this."

I glanced up at his face, not sure what he meant. His black eyes were mischievous.

"Come on," I said, taking some lime Jell-O. "We're holding up the line. Let's go pay for our food." We carried our food to the cash register, and I dug into my pockets, Sasuke whipped out his wallet and flipped it open. "My treat." I didn't even have to protest as he gave the lunch lady his money and paid for our lunch.

"You didn't have to do that."

"But I did and as long as your my fiancé and soon to be wife I'll always treat you like a lady." I blushed at his reply not use to being treated like a "lady".

"Look there's Ino," Sasuke noted, carrying both our trays.

"I suppose you're eating with us." I sighed, following as he glided through the maze of tables, headed toward Ino. Some of the other students glanced up, or edged away even, as the tall teenager in the crisp white shirt, black pants, and polished boots passed by. Sasuke didn't seem the least bothered by the attention. On the contrary I got the sense he felt he deserved nothing less.

"Hey, Saku and Sasuke" Ino greeted us as we sat down next to her. "Ino you look stunning today."

My best friend flushed with pleasure. "Why, thank you." She pointed to Sasuke fitted black trousers. "And speaking of clothes, those pants rock. Does everybody in Rome dress like you? Or just the royal kids?"

"Romania," I corrected. "Not Rome."

"Oh, it's all European." Ino waved me off, still staring at Sasuke in a way that could only be described as raptly. "Either way, the pants are supercool."

Sasuke smirked. "I'll tell my tailor his work is 'rockin' and 'supercool.' I'm sure he'll be gratified to learn that he can compete with the Gap."

He moved to pull out a chair for me, but it was my turn to grab his hand. "I'll get it."

"As you wish," he said, stepping back.

"Oh, I wish I lived in Romania." Ino sighed, propping her chin in her chubby hands. "Your manners are so…"

"Impeccable." Sasuke supplied the word for her.

"Oh, great," I muttered, searching my tray. "I forgot a spoon."

"I will be right back," Lucius offered rising.

"No. I'll get it," I insisted, standing up too.

Sasuke moved behind my chair, clasped my shoulders in those powerful hands, and gently but firmly guided me back into my seat. He leaned over me, speaking softly, still holding my upper arms. His cool breath grazed my ear, and I got that traitorous, ticklish feeling in my stomach again.

"Saku. For god's sake," he said. "Allowed me to at least one common courtesy for you. In spite of what 'women's lib' teaches you, chivalry is an admission of women's superiority. An acknowledgement of your power over us. This is the only form if servitude a Uchiha's ever practices, and I perform it gladly for you. You, in turn, are obligated to accept graciously."

Sasuke released my shoulders and strode off before I could reply.

"I have no idea what that meant, but it was, like, the hottest thing anyone have ever said." Ino followed Sasuke with her eyes. "How did you get so lucky? Why don't my parents ever get exchange students?"

"I wish he was your problem," _Oh, do I ever wish it._ If only Ino knew how crazy Sasuke Uchiha was. What he claimed to be. "Why does he have to act like that? I just want him to leave me alone."

Ino jabbed a straw into her cartoon if chocolate milk. "I don't get you, Saku. When we were five all we ever did was dress up like princesses. Now a real-life Prince Charming wants to wait on you hand and foot and you complain!"

I sighed "Ino please don't encourage him ok." She rolled her eyes and continues to sip on her milk.

"Your just too hung p on Naruto Uzumaki to see that real honest-to-goodness European royalty is hitting on you, Saku. You are going to waste your time on a guy who milks cows for fun-"

"Jake's family doesn't even have cows," I protested She rolled her eyes at me again.

"Better ease up on the Jell-O , Packrat." Someone called. "You already shake like a bowl full."

_Oh no…_ I glanced over to see Kiba flanked by Karin and her jock boyfriend Suigetsui, walking by our table,

"Your one to talk Kiba," I advised him. "At least all my fat's not in my head."

But they were already shambling off, laughing together.

"What did you just say to her?" Everybody turned around to look at the masculine voice.


	13. Confrontation

"What did you just say to her?" Everybody look behind me. Sasuke stood broad and tall while holding my plastic eating essentials. "Sasuke let it go. I handled it. Like I always I do."

Sasuke paused, to stare at me. "You want me to sit here and let this pathetic excuse for a guy to mock you?" I held him firm to his sleeve, feeling his taut muscles even through the fabric. "It's just Kiba being a jerk, as usual," I said "Don't start a fight over it." For a moment, Sasuke seemed to forget Sasuke, thank god. "Don't let it happen again." And with that he sat down. "Next time I won't resist."

He leaned back again in his seat, crossing his arms, watching the door through which Kiba, Karin, and Suigetsui had departed- watching it intently, as if he wished they would return and test him. As if he was plotting, strategizing, and living the fight in his imagination. His gaze was so coolly scary that even Ino grew quiet, for once in her life.

We finished lunch in silence. Sasuke never ate a thing, just picked up his Strawberry Julius now and then, absently,, as he watched the door. As we left the cafeteria, he tossed the cup into the garbage can, and it clattered hollowly against the side, empty.

"I hope he kicks Kiba ass someday," Ino whispered to me, dumping her tray. "It would be, like no contest. Sasuke looked like he was ready to kill for you."

The way Ino said it, the words almost sounded romantic. But I'd seen the look in Sasuke eyes, too, and felt his anger, barely contained in the tensed muscles beneath my hand.

No, the prospect of Sasuke Uchiha fulfilling any vendetta on my behalf didn't seem romantic at all. On the contrary, it just filled me with an unease that bordered on dread. Indeed, the move I thought about it, Suigetsui, Kiba, Karin, Sasuke- and I-seemed like a combination that could only lead to disaster.


	14. Message to Readers

Message to readers

Ok guys so I have a lot of STAR testing and EOCS coming I need to study hard so I won't be writing for a while ill be back June 6 to continue my story. On the weekends I may post chapters but I'm not sure. Sorry for the inconvenience..

-Love ,Percabeth4eva2014


	15. AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys sorry for no posting in awhile starting tomorrow I will be posting again almost everyday love you guys for supporting me. I've just been very stressed out lately and I just needed my break, I'll try not to take so long again.

Anyways love you guys and thanks.


	16. Curves and Love

"Why doesn't Sasuke have to help with the dishes?" I complained, handing mom a dripping plate. "He could help clean up. And I'm tired of doing his laundry, too. He always whines about the starch. Who evens uses starch?"

"I understand your frustrations, Saku." Mom swiped the plate with a towel. "But your father and I have discussed this, and we both think Sasuke is having enough difficulty adjusting to life in the United States without giving him chores, too."

"He's adjusting fine. Too fine, if you ask me."

"Don't mistake Sasuke swagger for happiness," mom said "His life is altered dramatically enough without forcing him to do extra work that would be done by servants in his home."

"Or so he claims."

"You know he's being very kind to you he had two choices one being come to America explain things to you and then get married in his country do to the pact or give you time to decide on your and get use to information. He chose the second one." My mom saw my shocked expression and laughed. "Regardless of what you think about Sasuke's…er vampireness-"

"I think it's a bunch of garbage."

"Regardless, Sasuke does come from a very wealthy, privileged background." I swished around in the soapy water, feeling for sunken silver ware. "How privileged? Honestly? Because sometimes I wonder about the polo ponies and the trips to Vienna."

"Oh, I wouldn't be surprised, Saku," Mom said. 'The Uchiha family lives on quite an impressive estate. It's a castle really high in the Carpathian Mountains."

"A castle?" Nobody lives in castles except in Disney movies. "And you've seen this 'castle'?"

"Only the exterior, which was imposing enough," Mom said. "We weren't allowed inside. The Uchihas were not the most accessible of vampires…" it seems as if she was going to expand on that but changed her mind. "The Haruno's were more welcoming."

We were veering to close to a discussion of birth parents. "What did it look like?" "The castle?"

Mom smiled. "This is the first time I've sensed that you're intrigued by anything related to Sasuke ."

I rinsed some knives. "Just by his house." Mom tossed the towel over her shoulder and leaned against the counter. "Not by Sasuke? Even a little bit?"

I recognized the subtle suggestion in her voice. "Mom! No."

"Saku… you must admit, Sasuke is a physically attractive young man, and he's clearly interested in you. It would only be natural if you evinced _some _interest in return. It wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of."

Dunking a casserole dish. I scrubbed at some lentils that had fused to sides during baking. "He thinks he's a vampire Mom."

"That doesn't change the fact the Sasuke Uchiha is a charming, powerful, strong, wealthy, good-looking boy."

I recalled the feel of Sasuke strong hand brushing against my cheek the night we met. That fluttery feeling in the pit of my stomach. And the fact that he had actually voiced his intention to bite my neck. "Have you ever seen me look at Sasuke with anything but disgust? Seriously?"  
>Mom smiled. "You'd be surprise how often disgust turns to lust." There was a knowing look in her eyes. As if she had just read my mind as I'd recalled Sasuke touching my face.<p>

I blushed. "That sounds like alchemy. Which is about as about as vampires."

"Oh. Saku" Mom sighed. "What is love if not a form of alchemy? There are forces in this universe that we just can't explain."

Yes, forces like the time-twisting gravity of a black hole. And the endless string of pi zooming out across the universe. Those were true forces and realities. Mysterious sure, but also measurable and perhaps understandable if we applied math and science and physics. Why couldn't my parents ever get that? Why did they have to look at the world and see magic and the supernatural; where I saw numbers and elements?

"I don't like Sasuke, mom, so you can just forget about alchemy, disgust, and especially lust," I promised, rinsing the casserole dish.

Mom didn't seem convinced as she dried the last of our dishes, "Well, if your feelings should changed, you can talk to me. I get the sense that Sasuke is a very experienced young man. I wouldn't want you to get in over your head…"

"Is Saku 'in over her head' somehow? Can I be of any assistant?"  
>Mom and I both turned to see Sasuke standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I blushed <em>How long had he been there? How much had he heard? "Disgust turns to lust"? <em>

If mom was embarrassed to be caught talking about Sasuke behind his back, it didn't show on her face. "Saku will be fine Sasuke. But thank you for asking. What brings in from the garage?"

"A craving for that delicious carob 'tofu ice cream' you keep in the freezer," Sasuke said He moved to the fried and swung open the top door. "Would either of you care to join me?"

"Actually, I'm headed to the barn to see some kittens your father found," Mom said to me. 'I suppose there's room for one more litter, but I like to put up a token of resistance. If I encourage him we'll be overrun." She patted our exchange student's shoulder on her way out of the kitchen. "Good night Sasuke.{

"Have a pleasant evening ." Sasuke set the mock ice cream on the counter and took two bowls from the cupboard, holding them up. "Saku? Can I tempt you?" "Thanks, but I'm sort of avoiding dessert." "Why?" Sasuke seemed genuinely puzzled. "I know carob isn't the most enticing flavor, but dessert is one of life's greatest pleasures, don't you think? I rarely forgo it- aside from the time your father attempted that eggless, cream less pumpkin pie. It hardly seemed worth the effort of lifting the fork to one's mouth."

I pulled the plug on the sink, realizing the now cold dish water. "Yeah, well you're not fat. You can eat dessert."  
>When I looked up from the swirling suds, Sasuke was frowning at me staring me up and down.<p>

"What?  
>I glanced down at my tank top and shirts. "Is there something on me?"<p>

"Surely you don't think find yourself overweight do you Saku?" he said with disbelief in his eyes. " you don't believe that imbecile who taunted you in the cafeteria… I knew I should have silenced him when I-"  
>"This has nothing to do with Inuzaka- who is my problem not yours, I just need to lose a couple of pounds so chill out." I said while pulling my long pink hair into a bun. "Sasuke pried on the container while shaking his. " Why do women see fit to be nearly invisible? Why not curves have, not angles. Definitely not points. American women our way to pointy for my likes I love women with curves an actually shape in there bodies"<p>

I rolled my eyes. "It's fashionable to be thin."

"Trust me men don't care what fashion magazines say. We don't think skeletal women our very attractive. The great majority of men prefer curves especially in bed." He said with an slight smirked. I blushed he just revealed to me he is experience in bed. He notice my face and smirked even more.

"What's wrong Saku? Still innocent." I blushed more crossing my arms across my chest I nodded yes, he chuckled. "How many girls have you slept with ?" I blushed even more for asking that question. "About 11 girls. Who were all very curvaceous." He said while smirking, and then he turned serious. "Sakura embrace who you are. A woman who wields the power you will enjoy doesn't need to follow fashion or be swayed by the malicious ridicule of inferiors."

My blush disappeared. _Here we go again_

_**New chapters almost everyday see you guys tomorrow hope you enjoy**_


	17. Images

"Don't start with that royalty crap again," I begged, slapping the dishrag into the sink. Any small warmth I'd felt toward Sasuke vanished. I felt angry, suddenly. "And don't call me by that name!"

"Oh, Saku. I didn't mean to upset you," he said, setting the container on the counter, his voice softened. "I was only trying-"

"I know what you're trying to do." I said "You try every day."

We had squared off, facing each other. Sasuke started to reach out to me, then apparently thought the better of it. His hand fell back to his side.

"Look, we need to have an serious talk." I said "About this whole 'pact' thing. This whole 'courtship'"

Sasuke paused, considering this. And then to my surprise, he agreed. "Yes, I suppose we should."

"Now"

"No," he said, reaching for the fake ice cream again. "Tomorrow night. In my quarters I have something to show you."

"What?"

"I prefer surprises. Another of life's greatest pleasures, Most of the time, Well, some of the time." I didn't like the sound of a surprise. I'd had enough surprises lately. But I agreed anyhow. I didn't care if Sasuke presented me with the deed to his castle, a herd of sheep- or whatever they used for dowries in Romania – and a diamond ring, I was going to persuade him once and for all that out "engagement" was off.

"I'll see you tomorrow night" I said, wiping down the countertop. " And washed out your dish when your done."  
>"Goodnight Saku."<p>

I knew I'd find that bowl in the sink at breakfast.

Later that night I drifted off to sleep thinking about my mom's assertion that disgust could turn to lust. Surely that didn't happen, did it? Nobody believed in alchemy anymore. You couldn't create gold from rocks or lead.

But as I slept, I had a dream about Sasuke. We were standing in my parent's kitchen, and he held that spoon up to my face. Only it wasn't full of frozen tofu anymore. It was smothered with richest, most decadent chocolate sauce imaginable,

"Ear it." Sasuke urged, light pressing the spoon against my lips. "Chocolate is one of life's greatest pleasures." His black eyes gleamed. " One of them, at least." 

I wanted to protest. _I'm to fat…too fat…_but he kept holding out the spoon, and the chocolate, starting to drip, was to tempting for any mortal, and in the end I ate it all. It was silk on my tongue. I swore taste it in my sleep. I clasped and clung to Sasuke hand, steadying it and closing my eyes as I finished the last of the imagined sweet elixir. When I was done, and I opened my eyes again, the spoon had disappeared, as things do in dreams and it was just me and Sasuke my fingers entwined with his, my soft chest pressed against his hard frame.

He smiled at me, revealing those amazing surreally white teeth. "You didn't regret that did you?" He asked and started to nuzzle my neck. My throat. " It was perfect, wasn't it?" he whispered in my ear. Then Sasuke wrapped his powerful arms completely around me, embracing me, engulfing me…

And I woke up, flat on my back.

It was dawn, and the sunlight was streaming in my window. I was breathing hard.

I rolled to my side, curling up and reclaiming reality when the sunlight glinted off something shiny on the floor near my closed door. A sliver bookmark, poking out of a book. A thin volume.

The book hadn't been there when I'd gone to sleep. Obviously someone snuck it in my room while asleep. I picked up the book reading the title. "_A young Vampire Guide to: Emotions, Body Changes, and Romance." _

_Oh god no. _the guide Sasuke had referenced on the first day we met. I vaguely recalled him mentioning it-right after he'd announced his plans to bite.

"Well I might as well look through it." I flipped to a section called changing your body.

'_Naturally young ladies feel confused, even ambivalent, as their bodies change. But don't be ashamed! Developing your curves is a natural part of becoming a womanly vampire."_

I resisted the urge to scream. I mean come on I don't Sasuke and this book telling me about my body and such.

Before I hurled the thing in my wastebasket, where it belonged I took a quick peek inside the cover looking a publisher. But instead found a note.

_Dearest Saku,_

_Of course I never required advice on any of these topics-really "Emotions"?- but I thought perhaps you, as a "new comer," so to speak, might find the guide helpful. In spite of the gratingly frothy tone, it's really quite respected among our race. Enjoy- and do consult me if you have questions. I consider myself quite an expert. Except on the "emotions"_

_Yours,_

_S_

_P.S. Did you know you snore? Pleasant dreams! _

He didn't give up. As I slammed the cover shut, I noticed that there was something tucked in the back of the book, too. An envelope. I started to slip it from between the pages. The little packet was waxy and nearly transparent, and I drew a sharp breath as I realized it contained a photograph. Even through the paper, I could make out the indistinct image of a woman.


	18. Memories

No.

I knew without looking whose picture I held. My birth mother. . .

I shoved the photo back inside the pages. Sasuke would not manipulate me, would not force the past upon me. He couldn't make me look at the long-deceased, disturbed woman who'd given me away.

Fighting back anger—at Sasuke, at the sad, embarrassing secrets of my past—I tossed the book under my bed. I didn't want my mom to find it accidentally if she emptied my waste-basket. I could tear it up and bury it deep in the compost pile later.

As the slender volume spun across the hardwood to land amid the dust bunnies, it struck me: Had Sasuke has been standing outside my door as I'd dreamed about him? Shame washed over me. Why had I had that late-night fantasy? And what had Sasuke meant by "pleasant dreams"? Why had he written that?

I hoped desperately that, along with snoring—which I did not do—I didn't talk in my sleep. And I recalled, with more than a little misgiving, my agreement to meet with Sasuke alone in his apartment later that night.

* * *

><p>"WELCOME," SASUKE SAID, swinging open the door to his apartment. He stepped back to usher me inside. "You're my first guest."<p>

"Holy shit."

Sasuke closed the door behind us. "Well, that's a pleasant reaction. Very ladylike."

I gasped. "What did you do here?" As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I noticed more and more details in the room. "Wow." The apartment, once decorated with flea market junk that was vaguely "country," had been overhauled in the fashion of what I assumed was a Romanian castle. A blood red velvet blanket covered the bed, a tastefully worn Persian rug overlaid the beige carpet remnant, and the walls had been painted a deep blue-gray. The color of old stone. My survey came to an abrupt halt at a wall-mounted display of what appeared to be antique weaponry. Sharp things. Spiky things. "Urn . . . what happened to Mom's collection of indigenous, fair-trade folk dolls of the world?"

"They've repatriated."

From the grimly pleased look on Sasuke face, I had a feeling the dolls' exile was permanent. "Mom and Dad are going to kill you when they see this." "Impossible." He laughed. "Besides, it's all cosmetic. Easily reversed. Although why anyone would prefer gingham to this . . ." He gestured around the room. "How about you, Saku? Do you like what I've achieved?"

"It's . . . interesting," I hedged. "But when did you have time to do this? Without anyone seeing?"

"You might say I'm a night person."

As my astonishment faded my anger with Sasuke resurfaced. "Speaking of your late-night activities, I didn't like the book," I advised him. "Or the way you delivered it."

Sasuke shrugged. "Perhaps in time you will find it useful."

"Sure. I'll keep it on my shelf right next to The Idiot's Guide to Becoming a Mythical Creature.'' Sasuke actually laughed. "Very funny. I didn't know you made jokes."

"I'm a funny person," I defended myself. "And by the way—I don't snore."

"You do snore. And you mumble, too."

My blood froze. The dream . . . "What? What did you hear?"

"Nothing too intelligible. But it must have been a rather pleasant dream. You sounded ecstatic."

"Don't lurk around my room," I ordered him. "I mean that."

"As you wish, of course." Sasuke lowered the volume on an old record player, which spun a warped vinyl disk that wailed unfamiliar music, scratchy and whiny, like cats fighting. Or a coffin with rusty hinges opening and closing over and over again in a deserted mausoleum. "Do you like Croatian folk?" he asked, seeing my interest. "It reminds me of home."

"I prefer normal music."

"Ah, yes, you're MTV with all the bumping and grinding. Like a shot of raging adolescent hormones administered via television. I'm not averse." He gestured to a chair, which definitely hadn't belonged to my parents. They didn't buy leather. "Sit, please. Tell me why you've called this meeting." I sank down, and the chair nearly swallowed me. It was buttery soft. "Sasuke, you have to stop following me around. And you need to go home."

"You are direct. I like that about you, Anta—Saku."

"I've made up my mind." I plunged ahead. "The 'marriage' is officially off. I don't care what the scroll says. I don't care what the Old Country old people—"

"The Elders."

"The Elders expect. It's not happening. I'm telling you now so you don't waste any more time. I'm sure you want to return to a real castle ..."

Sasuke shook his head. "No. We must learn to coexist, Saku. I have no choice in this matter—and neither do you. So I suggest that you at least try to work with me here, to use the popular expression."

"No."

Sasuke smiled a little. "You do have a will of your own." The smile faded. "This is not the time to use it."

He began pacing, like he'd done in Mrs. Wilhelm's class. "Not to honor the pact... it would not only result in a political crisis, it would dishonor the memory of our parents. They wished this, in the interest of peace."

I looked at Sasuke with a little surprise. "What happened to your parents?"

"They were destroyed in the purge like yours. What did you think?"

"Sorry. I ... I didn't know."

Sasuke sat down on the bed, leaning forward, lacing his fingers together. "But unlike you, Saku, I was raised within our race, with proper role models."

"The so-called Elders?" I guessed.

"Yes. I was sent to live with my uncles. And if you knew them—as you should—you would not have that smirk in your voice." He ground his palms together, clearly masking some sudden frustration. "They are fearsome." I frowned. "And living with fearsome Elders was a good thing?"

"It was a proper thing," Lucius said. "I was taught discipline. Honor." He rubbed his jaw. "By force, when they deemed it necessary."

My anger at him was forgotten. "You mean your uncles hit you!"

"Of course they hit me, "Sasuke said very matter-of-factly. "Time and again. They were making a warrior. Forming a ruler. Kings are not created with sweets and hugs and kisses on Mommy's knee. Kings bear scars. No one wipes your tears when you sit on a throne. It's best not to be raised expecting it."

"That's . . . that's just wrong," I objected, thinking of my parents, who couldn't bear to exterminate the termites that were gradually chewing away the barn, let alone hit a child. "How could they hurt you?"

Sasuke waved away the sympathy. "I did not speak of the Elders' strict discipline to generate your pity. I was a wayward child. Strong-willed. Difficult to control. My uncles needed to groom me for leadership. And they did." He looked pointedly at me. "I learned to accept my destiny." I groaned. We were back to square one. "Sasuke, it's not happening. The cult or whatever it was or is . . . it's not for me. I'm not joining."

Sasuke stood up and started pacing again, raking his long fingers through his shiny black hair. "You're not listening."

" You're not listening," I shot back.

Sasuke rubbed his eyes. "Damn, you are infuriating. I told the Elders long ago that it was insane to raise you outside of the culture. That you would never be a suitable bride. A suitable princess. But everyone, both clans, were insistent that you were too valuable to risk your life by keeping you in Romania—"

"I'm not a princess!"

"Yes, you are, "Sasuke insisted. "You are an invaluable woman. Royalty. Had you been raised properly, you would be fully aware of that already. Ready to rule." He jabbed a finger at his chest. "To rule at my side. But as it is, you remain an un-schooled girl." He nearly spat the word. "I've been paired for eternity with a child!"

A little shiver zipped down my spine. "You really are crazy." He moved to the bookshelves, reaching high. "And you are impossible." I popped out of my chair. "What are you doing? What are you getting?"

"A book. The item I wanted to show you." Sasuke dragged a massive, shiny, leather-bound volume off the top shelf and hoisted it onto the mattress, where it sank into the plush blanket. He pointed. "Sit here. Please."

"I'll stand thanks."

Sasuke arched his brows, mocking, and sat down, pat-ting the spot next to him. "Are you afraid of me? Afraid of vampires?"

"No." I joined him on the bed. He edged even closer, until our legs were almost touching, and opened the book over both our laps. This time, I recognized Romanian script on the pages, and the branching lines of a genealogy. "Your family?"

"All the vampire families. The nobles, at least."

The parchment crackled as he searched through the pages, smoothing two open. "This is us. Where we connect." He tapped his finger at the juncture of two lines. "Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno."

Not again. "I saw all this before, remember? I read the smelly old scroll."

He shifted slightly to meet my eyes. "And you will see it again. And again. Until you stop saying flippant things like 'smelly old scroll' and understand who you are."

For once, I didn't shoot back with a quick retort. Some-thing in his expression stopped me.

After a long silence, Sasuke returned his attention to the book. I realized I needed to breathe, having stopped for a few seconds. Dammit. My stomach felt like it held squirming kit-tens again, too. I ignored the genealogy for a moment and watched Sasuke in profile. A shock of his ebony hair fell over his high forehead, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. A small scar ran right along the jaw line where he'd rubbed his face.

Honor. Discipline. Force. What did these Elders do to him?

I was used to men like my dad and the other fathers I knew. Nice guys. Guys who wore Dockers and played kickball with their kids and put on funny ties at Christmas. Sasuke was as different from those men as his weapons collection was from Mom's dolls. He was undeniably charming when he wanted to be, his manners were smooth, but there was a roughness just below the surface.

"Those are your parents," Sasuke continued, his voice very quiet. I returned my attention to the genealogy as he ran his fingers over the names Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno , just above my own. My birth mother. And biological father. Their death dates were scrawled there, too. I stifled a groan of frustration and anger. Why do we have to keep returning to my birth parents? This was supposed to be a happy year for me. A carefree time. But Sasukenhad arrived, and with him my past.

He didn't just drag me down with a nonsensical story about vampires and weddings, but he kept trying to lasso me with my real past, too. To loop a noose around my neck and drag me through a graveyard.

Sasuke presence was a constant reminder of who I might have been in Romania. A reminder of not just vampires but ghosts. The ghosts of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno . They were strangers, really. . . I wouldn't grieve them . . .And yet I felt sad. His own sorrow made Sasuke voice even softer. He traced the unfamiliar words Mikoto and Fugaku.

"And these were my parents."

I wanted to say something. The right thing. But I didn't know what that might be, for either of us. "Sasuke . . ."

"See this date," he continued, not looking at me. "Under our names? That marks our betrothal ceremony. Our parents wrote that date. At least, one of them did." A whisper of a wistful smile played upon his lips. "That was a great day for the Uchiha's and Haruno's. Our two warring clans at peace. Pre-pared to join together. So much power in one place. How many times have I heard that story?"

"But that's what it is ... a story."

"It's an edict." Sasuke slammed the book shut with a thud. "We are meant to be together. Regardless of how we feel about each other. Irrespective of how much you despise me."

"I don't despise you .. ."

"No?" His eyebrows arched, and his mouth twisted into a wry smile. "You could have fooled me." I turned the tables. "You talk a lot about obligation and duty and chivalry, but I don't get the sense you really like me that much, either. You can't tell me you want to marry me. You just called me a child!"

Sasuke took a long time choosing his words. "You are a puzzle to me, Saku," he finally said. "A mystery. But at least I am open to the possibility of exploring that which I don't understand." The dim light glimmered in his black eyes, and we were so close that I could see the faint shadow of stubble on his cheeks. Most guys I knew still seemed more like boys than men. Did Naruto even shave?

But Sasuke... he had crossed that line. And I was sitting on a bed with him. Alone. In a darkened room. Talking about "exploring" my so-called "mysteries." I edged away. "What would happen, anyway, if we didn't get married?" I asked, trying to change the subject. Distancing us again. "How bad could it be?" Sasuke moved away, too, reclining back on the bed, propped on his elbows. "Most likely a full-scale war, your family against mine, some five million vampires struggling to fill the power vacuum, building coalitions, leaders rising and falling, destruction and bloodshed on a massive scale. And when vampires war ... well, as the old adage says, 'an army travels on its stomach.'"

I wasn't familiar with the saying, so—against my better judgment—I asked, "And that means . . . ?"

"Armies need to eat," Sasuke clarified. "So the streets will run with human blood, too. There will be chaos. Countless loss of lives." Sasuke paused, shrugging. "Or maybe nothing would happen. Vampires are a very capricious people. It's one of our best—and worst—traits. But really, it's probably not wise to risk it."

"Why do Uchiha's and Haruno's supposedly hate each other so much?" Sasuke shrugged. "Why do all powerful nations and cultures and religions clash? For control of territory. For the simple lust for dominance. It has always been so between our two clans—until the pact secured a tentative promise of peace through unification, as equals. If we fail to complete the bar-gain—you and I—the blood is on our hands."

Images of blood-drenched streets—my fault—kept flashing in my brain like a movie scene being replayed over and over, so I stood, shaking my head. "That's the stupidest story I've ever heard."

"Really?" Sasuke eyes were now inscrutable, which was somehow scarier than his anger. He rose, too. "How shall I make you believe this 'story'?"

"You can't." I backed up a little. "Because vampires don't exist."

"I exist. You exist."

"I'm not a vampire," I insisted. "That genealogy means nothing."

Anger flashed in Sasuke's eyes. "The genealogy means every-thing. It is the only possession I prize." I retreated a few more paces. He seemed to loom taller than ever. "I have to go now," I told him. But with each step, Sasuke advanced toward me, slowly, and I found myself halting, spellbound by those black eyes, mesmerized. The shiver down my spine came stronger, rooting me to the floor like an electric shock.

"I don't believe in vampires," I whispered, but with less conviction.

"You will believe."

"No. It's not rational."

Sasuke was inches from me now, and he leaned down, the better to see eye-to-eye. And then he bared his teeth. Only they weren't just teeth anymore. They were fangs. Two fangs, to be precise. Two sharp, seductive, gleaming fangs. They were the most awful, perfect, unbelievable things I had ever seen. I wanted to scream. Scream as loud as humanly possible. Or maybe feel Sasuke clasp my shoulders, pull me tightly to himself, feel the authority in his hands, the touch of his lips, those teeth on my throat. . . Oh, god. What was wrong with me? What was wrong with him? He was a freaking vampire. He really was.

No. It was a magic trick. An illusion. I closed my eyes, rubbing them, cursing myself for falling for the fakery and yet half expecting the sensation of razor like incisors slicing into my jugular. "Please . . . don't!" There was a moment of silence that stretched on forever. A moment when I honestly believed that he might hurt me. And then, suddenly, Sasuke really did grab my arms and pull me close, enfolding me against his chest, just as he'd done in my dream. Firmly, but gently.

"Sakura," he murmured, and his voice was soft again. He smoothed my curls with his hand, and I allowed him to soothe me, too relieved to object. "I'm sorry . . . that was cruel to scare you," he said. "I should not have done that, that way. Please, forgive me."

Tentatively, I wrapped my arms around Sasuke's narrow waist, not even sure why I did it, and he squeezed me even closer, resting his chin on the top of my head. His hand covered the entire small of my back, which he stroked softly. We stood that way for about a full minute. I could feel his heart beat against my cheek. Very softly. Very slowly. Almost impercep-tibly. Mine was pounding, and I knew he could feel that, too.

Finally I pulled back, and he let me go.

"Don't ever do that stupid trick again," I said, surprised to find that my voice was shaky. "Never. It's not funny."

The crazy Croatian music spun on the turntable, eerie and penetrating. Sasuke took my arm, and I hated that a part of me welcomed his touch again. Hated that it had been hard to pull away. He's a lunatic, Saku.

"Please,Saku. Sit." Sasuke gestured to the bed. "You look a little pale."

Sit. . . and then what will happen?

"I ... I have to go," I said.

Sasuke didn't try to stop me, and I left him standing there, in the middle of that dark room. I tripped down the steps, and when I reached our yard, I ran, not stopping until I'd locked the door in my own room, breathless, flushed, and incredibly, in-credibly confused. Because what I'd felt hadn't just been fear. It had been something like the sensations I'd had in my dream about Sasuke. Disgust turned to fear turned to lust. . . alchemy. Insanity. It was all mixed up in my brain suddenly. And it was so, so wrong.

Another how come his fangs turn me on?


	19. 2nd Letter

DEAR UNCLE MADARA,

I write to thank you for releasing the money from my trust, as requested, and for so expeditiously shipping my weapons collection and other miscellaneous furnishings, carpets, etc. I fear I couldn't have endured one more day with those doe-eyed "folk" dolls staring at me from every cheerful, plaid-covered corner of this room. It was like being surrounded by a multicultural army of midgets, all waiting to attack some night as I slept.

I have done the Haruno's the favor of disposing of the entire collection, with the assistance of the medieval maul you were so kind to include. A pair of salt and pepper shakers shaped like dogs wearing chefs' toques have, alas, met their doom, too. Someday the Haruno's will no doubt come to their senses and thank me.

On to the bad news. I fear I've made a slight misstep, having introduced Sakura to the concept of vampiric transformation rather abruptly last night. Her reaction was raw fear, followed by denial. Honestly, Madara, she dismissed my fangs as some sort of parlor trick. Can you imagine? One of nature's most compelling metamorphoses disclaimed as a magic act? God, the girl irks me. So resistant. So rational.

In short, I have taken no steps forward and two steps backward.

I will gladly shoulder the blame for my mistake (I should have anticipated Sakura's reaction— my pedagogy was less than subtle), but did I not predict all of this difficulty years ago?

Lying awake in the garage, I often ponder how different things could have been had Sakura been raised as a true vampire. Not to sound arrogant, Madara, but I know from past experience that I do not repulse women. (Is the Bucharest debutante season underway? Heavy sigh.) And Sakura for all her faults (T-shirts rank at the top of that list) . . . well, I can sometimes see flashes of who she could have been. Of what we could have been.

Indeed, Sakura's most vexing quality— her aforementioned will— is the very thing that would serve her so well as a ruler. She stands up to me, Madara. How many are willing to do that? There is great intelligence in her eyes, too. And a certain mocking laughter — a hallmark of our kind. She is beautiful, too, Madara. Or she would be if she did not try so hard to hide it. If she only believed she is beautiful.

At times, it is not impossible to imagine Sakura in our castle, at my side— provided she cultivated better manners, acquiesced to the concept of women's clothes, and straightened that spine. (No one in America exhibits the slightest interest in posture. Standing upright seems to be something of a lost art, like fencing.)

In the wished-for reality that I sometimes envision, our courtship consists of excursions to the opera in Vienna, riding in the Carpathians (she does ride!), and conversing as we linger over meals that actually consist of food. That is how I have always approached — and succeeded with! — The fairer sex in Romania.

But of course daydreams and wishing are wasted, idle exercises that may amuse more effectively than the available television programs (an entire network devoted to the game "poker"— need I say more?) but do nothing to alter reality. No amount of horrified shuddering on my part will change the fact that Sakura is an American girl who apparently requires an American approach. Now I must determine exactly what that means. Some activity involving a "burger and fries," no doubt.

At any rate, that, "in nutshell"— to use yet another quaint Americanism (is there no end to them?)—

is the situation here in "our little democracy," as my faux father figure Ned is so fond of repeatedly calling this ridiculous farm where virtually no agriculture is practiced. Honestly, if ever a place needed the firm hand of a tyrant. . . Fewer beasts in the yard, more in the oven: That would be my first decree. But again, wishes change nothing.

Your nephew,

Sasuke

P.S. At the risk of testing your patience, I have one more re-quest. I have nearly depleted my supply of Type A. (Basketball practice does make me thirsty. Go team.) Are you familiar with a good domestic source I might tap?


	20. Horscopes and Fights

"YOUR HOROSCOPE SAYS 'today is a good day to take a risk,'" Ino read, leaning against the lockers, nose buried in her new copy of Cosmo. "I can't believe you read that." I laughed, rummaging around for the books I needed to take home. "I mean, do you really need to know '75 Sex Tricks to Drive Him Wild'? Wouldn't twenty or so be enough for anybody?"

Ino surfaced from the pages, a grin on her face. "They might all come in handy someday. Don't you want to be pre-pared in the event that you want to 'drive him wild'?"

I flushed, recalling my mom's talk, the dream I'd had about Sasuke, the feelings I'd had that night in his apartment when he'd done that stupid trick with his teeth.

"Hey, you never know." Mindy pointed behind me. "Look who's here."

I turned around, half expecting to see Sasuke amid the crowd of students getting ready to go home.

Ino's crush was getting out of control, and if she talked about sex, a mention of Sasuke couldn't be far behind. But no, it was Naruto, pulling his leather-armed wrestling jacket from his locker. I spun back around, feigning an even greater interest in the contents of my own locker.

"You should go talk to him," Ino advised, a little too loudly. "Unless you've finally realized that Sasuke is the better choice..."

"Sasuke is not better, and he's not a 'choice,'" I said.

"Well then, this is your chance to ask Naruto to the fall carnival," Ino said. She held up Cosmo. "Listen to your horoscope. Take a risk."

"I know you read it, but you don't really believe that 'guided by the stars' stuff, do you?" I pulled out of my locker, cradling my pile of books.

"Of course," Ino said.

"Go. Ask him to the carnival. Unless, of course, you're having second thoughts about Sasuke . .."

"No, I'm not," I assured her. Although I had this funny feeling all the butterflies I felt for Naruto were kind of disappearing…? And I kind of felt bad I mean me and Sasuke aren't married but it still felt like an betrayal.

"Then ask Naruto."

"I could go without a date."

"But it's cooler to have a date. And you'd better hurry because he's leaving."

I turned around again to see Jake slamming his locker door shut. Mindy gave me a little shove. "Go!" Her second thrust gave me no choice. Especially since Jake was walking in our direction.

"Hey." He smiled as I practically crashed into him. "Thanks for the drink the other night."

"Sure." Brilliant, Saku. I looked around for Ino, for support, but she and her Cosmo and her 75 Sex Tricks had disappeared.

"I was just talking about you," Naruto said. "I hear you're odds-on to win a top spot at 4-H this year."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Karin says your Appaloosa can really jump."

"Karin said that? Are you sure?" Even though Karin boarded her thoroughbred at my parents' farm, she managed to act like I didn't exist. Like Sasuke, she seemed to mistake me for some sort of stable hand. I certainly didn't think she'd ever bothered to watch me ride.

"Yeah. She thinks you're her best competition."

"I'll never beat Karin thoroughbred," I said. "Not on an Appaloosa. Even one as good as Belle."

"I'm sure you'll do great."Naruto hesitated. "Maybe someday I could come watch you ride."

"Really? I mean, that would be great." I smiled, meeting Naruto beautifully bland gaze. His blue eyes were so blessedly. ..Simple. Not dark and terrifying and changeable. And his teeth ... so wonderfully average.

So un-fanglike. Naruto blinked. There was a briefly uncomfortable silence. It was now or never. I took a deep breath. "Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to the carnival?" My heart was thudding so hard that I was afraid I wouldn't catch his answer. "Because I was thinking maybe we could . . . you know, go together."

He paused. "Well, I really wasn't sure—"

Oh, half deaf, I heard the hesitation in his voice. He was turning me down. I knew it. It's the Chucks. It has to be the Chucks. Or the five pounds. . . "Oh, I understand," I interrupted, cheeks on fire. "It's no big deal."

"No, wait—"

"Hey, Packrat!" A heavy arm thumped down around my shoulders, and I found myself cheek-to-cheek with Kiba Inuzaka, who was hanging on me, a slimy grin on his fat face. Horrified, I tried to slip free, but Kiba held tight, giving me a little shake. "Did I just hear you asking Naruto here to the carnival?

What's up with that?"

"Stop it, Kiba," I begged, clutching my books to my chest. "This is none of your business."

"Yeah, Kiba," Naruto said. "Leave it alone."

Kiba rumpled my curls. "Oh, you crazy kids."

I tried to push his hand away and smooth my hair, but I was so flustered that I dropped my books from my hot, wet hands. My homework crashed to the floor, my papers scattering everywhere. "Get lost, Kiba," I pleaded, furious. It was one thing to call out a quick taunt in the cafeteria, but he went too far this time. . . .

Kiba winked at Naruto. "So what's it gonna be, Naruto? Are you going to take the Packrat? Because rumor has it that she's getting it on with that foreign undertaker who lives in her garage. You are blowing him, right, Saku?"

I twisted under Kiba's arm, trying again to pull away, when suddenly I was liberated. Because Kiba was pinned against a locker, his throat in the grip of a calm but very determined Romanian exchange student.

Kiba's heels banged metal. "Hey!"

But Sasuke only hoisted Kiba a little higher. "Gentlemen don't ask women impertinent questions about delicate subjects." His voice was even, almost bored. "And they never, ever use crude expressions in mixed company. Not unless they're ready to face the consequences."

"Sasuke, no!" I cried.

"Let go," Kiba sputtered, his face turning as red as mine. He clawed futilely at Sasuke grip as a crowd gathered in the hall. "You're choking me, man."

"Let him go, Sasuke," I begged, watching Kiba turn from red to blue. "He's suffocating!" Sasuke eased his grip, allowing Kiba to touch the floor with his toes but keeping him firmly contained.

"Tell me what you want me do with him,Saku," Sasuke urged, over his shoulder. "Name the punishment. I shall deliver it."

"Nothing, Sasuke!" I said, face flaming even brighter. He isn't my bodyguard. "It's not your fight!"

"No," Sasuke agreed. "It is my pleasure." He turned his attention back to Kiba, who had ceased struggling and remained flattened, motionless, against the locker, eyes bulging. "You will pick up the young lady's books, hand them to her nicely, and apologize," Sasuke ordered. "Then we will go outside and conclude our business."

He dropped Kiba who slumped forward, gasping for air.

"I'm not fighting you." Kiba wheezed, rubbing his neck.

"It will be a lesson, not a fight," Sasuke promised. "And when I am finished, you will not bother Saku again."

I shared a worried glance with Naruto, who stood by, silent, wary.

"We were just goofing around," Kiba complained.

Sasuke glared, drawn up to his full six-foot-plus height. He seemed to fill the hallway. "Where I come from, causing a woman distress isn't amusing. I should have made that clear the other day. I will not miss another opportunity."

"Where do you. come from?" Kiba challenged, puffing his chest, a little bolder now that he could breathe. "Some of us are starting to wonder."

"I come from civilization," Sasuke retorted. "You wouldn't be familiar with the territory. Now pick up the books."

Kiba must have heard the final warning in Sasuke's low snarl, because he bent and did as he was told, muttering the whole time. He shoved the books into my hands and started to slink away. Sasuke grabbed him again. "You forgot to apologize."

"I'm sorry,"Kiba said through gritted teeth.

Sasuke gave Inuzuka a little shove. "Now let's go outside."

"Sasuke," I said, grabbing his arm. The muscles were rigid beneath my fingers. He'd destroy flabby Inuzaka, who couldn't do ten push-ups if his life depended on it. "Stop it. Now."

Sasuke stared down at me. "You are worth this, Saku. He will not disrespect you. Not in my presence."

And all of a sudden my breaths stop. Nobody has ever told me that before. I mean of course my parents have told me they love and etc. But to hear from a guy… not only that he's fighting for me although, I've been nothing but mean to him.

"You can't do that here . . . not like that," I warned my voice stuttered a little from the shock. "This isn't Romania." This isn't your family, with whatever brutal rules they enforced. "You've taken it too far."

We stared at each other for a long moment. Then Sasuke glanced at Kiba. "Get out of here. And feel fortunate that you have a reprieve. Because you won't get another, no matter what Saku wishes."

"Freak," Kiba muttered. But he hurried into the crowd, which melted away behind him, leaving only Sasuke, Naruto, and me. Naruto started to backpedal, too, but Sasuke wasn't quite finished.

"I believe you two were engaged in conversation. Please. Finish."

"We're done," I promised, pushing Sasuke away. He held his ground, without taking his eyes off Naruto. I kind of didn't want to date Naruto or even ask him out on a date. He doesn't have to be as defensive as Sasuke, but he did was sit there. I'm not going to lie I like brave guys. But suddenly emotions started hitting me all at once. _What if Sasuke only doing this because he has to not not because he wants to? Why am I the constantly bullied one? _

"Is that true?" Sasuke asked Naruto. "Were you finished?"

"I . . . we were talking about. .." Naruto shuffled, glancing at his feet. "Look, Saku, I'll talk to you later."

"It's okay, Naruto, I understand. Please—you don't have to say anything else." The tears that had been forming in my eyes for about five minutes started to spill over.

"Why is she crying?" Sasuke demanded. "Did you say something to her?"

Naruto put up his hands. "No. I swear."

I walked away from them heading out of the school. Trying to stop crying.

Sasuke was waiting for me outside the school, sitting on a low brick wall near the entrance. When he saw me, he hopped down and held out his hands for my books like he always did when he managed to track me down after school. I wonder how he got here so fast. Oh yeah he's an "Vampire"

"We missed the bus," Sasuke pointed out. He didn't sound disappointed. I ignored not trying to be mean but afraid if I speak I might cry. I started walking towards my mom office to see if we can catch a ride.

Sasuke fell in step with me, and we headed toward the campus in the cool mid-autumn late afternoon. After a few moments of silence, he pulled a crisp linen monogrammed handkerchief from an inner pocket in his coat, handing it to me. "Your face is tearstained."

"Thanks," I said, accepting the handkerchief. I wiped at my cheeks and blew my nose. "Here," I said, handing it back.

Sasuke held up a hand, cringing. "You keep it. I beg you. I have others."

"Thanks." I wadded up the handkerchief, trying to stuff it in my pocket.

"My pleasure, Saku." Sasuke gaze was trained far-off, his tone distracted. About a block later, he advanced slightly ahead of me, walking backward, bent over, searching my face. "That boy. . . that squatty Naruto ..."

"What about Naruto?" It was my turn to look away, focusing down the oak-lined street.

"He's . . . he's someone you're honestly attracted to?"

I crossed my arms over my chest, shrugging, kicking at a fallen acorn. "Oh, I don't know. I mean . . ."

"Well, you're accompanying him to this gala everyone's talking about—"

"It's a carnival. Like a party in the gym. Not a 'gala.' Nobody says 'gala.' At least nobody at Woodrow Wilson."

Sasuke frowned. "Gala, carnival . . . regardless. You're courting?"

Is that hurt in Sasuke's eyes? Or just the usual darkness? "No I decided I'm not going with him, I probably won't go at all. But if I do I might go with him" I admitted, not sure why I suddenly felt guilty. I had no reason to feel guilty. Just because Sasuke believed we were engaged didn't make me a cheater, for crying out loud. But he kept staring, so I added lamely,

"I hope that's not a problem. What with the pact and all."

"I just find it hard to understand."

"What?" This I had to hear. "I thought you knew everything."

"He didn't even defend you." Lucius rubbed his chin, genuinely confused.

I got a little defensive myself honestly I agreed with him, but I wanted to see how far my arguing with him would go. "Here, women defend themselves. Men don't have to fight for us. I told you—I can handle Kiba."

"Not the way I can on your behalf. Not the way Naruto should have. Like it or not, you are bound by gender. You can swat at the fly, but I could crush him. Any honorable male would have stepped up."

"Hey," I protested. "Naruto has honor."

"Not enough to protect you."

"Oh, Sasuke," I groaned. "Naruto thinks you went totally overboard—and he's right."

Sasuke shook his head. "Then he didn't see your face."

I didn't quite know what to say to that. "What do you mean?"

He sighed before answering. "Your eyes were tearing up before I arrived you were about to cry, I guess this isn't the first time someone has done this to you? "

I didn't answer. Wondering how observe could he get.

We resumed walking in silence, Sasuke reining in his big stride to match mine. He seemed even more distracted than before, a big frown on his face.

We passed through the gates to the Grantley campus, heading toward Schreyer Hall, where Mom's office was. Suddenly Sasuke brightened. "You do drive, don't you? Have a license?"

"Well, yeah, sure. Why? Where do you want to go?" The blood bank?

"I think I would like to buy some jeans," Sasuke announced. "Perhaps a T-shirt. And they're very rigid about wearing certain shoes in the gym. My Romanian soles break some sort of rule. Apparently I need shoes with a 'swoosh' on the side if I'm to continue playing basketball."

I stopped in my tracks. "You want to buy regular clothes?"

"No, I want to update my wardrobe in line with cultural norms," he corrected. "You do know how to get to these famous 'outlets' I hear so much about, right?"

I gasped, jamming one finger against Sasuke's chest. "Wait right here. Don't move. I'll ask Mom if we can borrow the van." This I have to see. What in the world would Sasuke Uchiha deem normal? And more importantly, how would a tall, imperious Romanian accustomed to wearing tailor-made black pants look in a pair of jeans?


	21. Shopping

"HONESTLY, I DON'T KNOW how some of these stories got started," Sasuke complained, adjusting the van's radio, probably looking for Croatian folk music but settling for classical on the public station.

"Hollywood, I suppose."

I flipped to a pop station, just to irritate him. "So you don't think you can change into a bat?"

Sasuke turned down the music and shot me a look that said he was insulted. "Please. A bat? What self-respecting vampire would transfigure into a flying rodent? Would you become a skunk, even if you had the ability?"

"No, I guess not." I braked for a traffic light. "Maybe once, just to see what it was like."

"Well, vampires cannot transform into anything."

"How about garlic? Does it repulse you?"

"Only on someone's breath."

"And stakes? Can you be killed with a stake?"

"Anyone can be killed with a stake. But yes—that one is true. In fact, a stake through the heart is the only effective way to destroy a vampire."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

"To save you time, I will add that we do not sleep in coffins. We do not sleep upside down. We, quite obviously, don't disintegrate in sunlight. How could one live a practical, useful life that way?"

"So far, being a vampire sounds pretty dull if you ask me."

"At the risk of rising a bad subject—and again, my apologies—you didn't seem to think my fangs were dull the other evening. In fact, you reacted quite strongly to their sharpness."

And to the feel of his hands, his body. . . Don't go there, Saku ."How did you do that? Did you have, like, a set of plastic teeth in your mouth?"

Sasuke shot me an incredulous look. "Plastic teeth? Did they look plastic?"

"No," I admitted. "But dentures look real."

"Dentures." He snorted. "Don't be absurd. Those were— are—my teeth. That is what vampires do. We grow fangs."

"Do it now then." I steered the van onto Route 30, navigating traffic.

"Oh, Saku... I don't think that's wise while you're driving on a busy road. You quite panicked the other night."

"You can't do it, can you?" I challenged. "Because it was a stupid trick, and you don't have your props."

"Don't provoke me, Saku. Not unless you really want me to do as you ask. Because I can, and I will."

"Do it."

"As you wish." Sasuke turned toward me, bared his teeth, and I nearly ran off the road. Sasuke grabbed the wheel, swerving us back into place.

"Holy shit." He'd done it again. He really had. I slid my gaze over, cautiously. The pointy teeth were gone. It's a trick. A trick. I wouldn't fall for it. Teeth were covered with enamel, one of the hardest substances in the body. Enamel couldn't shift or change. It was impossible, at the molecular level.

"You really must get used to that," Sasuke chided.

"Do you buy the trick at, like, a magic shop?"

"It's not a trick. Please stop using that word." Sasuke drummed his fingers on the VW's vinyl passenger seat. I could tell he was getting frustrated again. "Vampiric transformation is a phenomenon. If you'd read the book I provided—"

I groaned. "Oh, god, that thing." My unwanted copy of Growing Up Undead was still under my bed. I kept meaning to throw it out but somehow never got around to it. I didn't want to think about why.

"Yes, 'that thing,'" Sasuke said. "If you'd read the guide as you should you would know that male vampires gain the ability to grow fangs at puberty. It happens when we're exceedingly angry. Or . . . aroused."

"So you're saying 'fangs' are like a—" I started to say "erection" like I said it every day of my life. But the truth was, I had never said that word out loud, and discovered that I couldn't do it then. But Sasuke understood.

"Yes. That. Precisely. Often kind of a tandem effect, if you understand my meaning. But it gets easy to control with practice. And women can grow fangs, too, of course."

"So why can't I do it if I'm supposedly such a big-time vampire?" Sooner or later, I would confound him with logic.

But Sasuke shot right back, "Women have to be bitten first, I need to bite you. It's a great privilege for a man to be his betrothed's first bite."

"Don't start that betrothal talk again," I said seriously. Spotting the first entrance to the outlet mall, I made a quick turn. "Not even joking. We're done with that."

Sasuke tilted his head. "Are we done with it?"

"Yes."

I pulled into a parking spot. "How about mirrors? When you try on clothes, will you be able to see yourself in a mirror?"

Sasuke rubbed his temples. "Have you taken basic science at Woodrow Wilson High School? Do you know the principles behind reflectivity?"

"Of course I do. I'm the one who actually believes in science, remember? I was just joking." I yanked the keys out of the ignition. "So let's recap. You can't change into a bat, you don't dissolve in sunlight, and you're visible in mirrors. What can vampires do? Why's it so awesome to be one, then?"

"What would be so wonderful about dissolving in sunlight? Or not being able to look in a mirror and judge if you've dressed yourself properly?"

"You know what I mean. You keep saying vampires are so great. I just want to know why."

Sasuke's head dropped back against the seat. He stared at the shag carpet on the ceiling of the van as though begging for patience or guidance. "We are only the most powerful race of super humans. We are physically gifted with grace and strength. We are a people of ritual and tradition. We have heightened mental powers: the ability to communicate without speech when necessary. We rule the dark side of nature. Is that 'awesome' enough for you?"

I grabbed the door latch. "So why drink blood?"

Sasuke sighed deeply, opening his own door. "Why is everyone so obsessed with the blood? There's so much more."

"And there is something that is cool that only the Uchiha clan does making us the most powerful vampire clan, and I could show you but you will only insult it and cool it a "trick"." I stared him. "Show me oh so powerful one."

He gave me one of those sexy smirks. And then he leaned over his lips landing next to my ear. "I'll show you tonight." I blushed furiously I did not want to go in his room again. "Show me now." He just smirked at me more not giving in.

I dropped the subject. I'd sort of became distracted, anyhow, now that we were about to go shopping.

"So where do you want to go first?"

Sasuke came around the front of the van and placed his hands on my shoulders, pointing me toward the Levi's outlet. I here.

Five stores and about five hundred dollars later, Sasuke Uchiha looked almost like an American teenager. And, I had to admit, a hot American teenager. He wore a pair of 501s even better than his black pants. And when he put on a loose white untucked oxford shirt—having decided that a T-shirt would be a bit too Real World/Road Rules Challenge for Romanian royalty—well, the effect was pretty nice. It didn't seem embarrassing to be with him. Not at all. Ino would probably pass out, literally, when she saw him.

"So how about getting rid of the velvet coat?" I asked.

"Never," he replied.

So much for not being embarrassing.

We were walking toward the car, juggling all our shopping bags, when Sasuke stopped short and grabbed my arm, dropping a bag.

I turned. "What?"

He was looking in the window of a store called Boulevard St. Michel, an upscale boutique with very, very expensive clothes. The kind of clothes that rich women wear to cocktail parties. I'd never been inside. For one thing, my dad didn't believe in dry cleaning, because of the "Perce missions" that messed up the environment. And for another, I couldn't afford one shoe from Boulevard St. Michel, even at outlet prices. Not even after a whole summer slinging burgers at the diner.

"What are you doing?" I followed his gaze.

Sasuke kept staring at the window. "That dress—the one with the flowers scattered across the bodice—"

"Did you just say 'bodice'?"

"Yes, and skirt—"

"The dress with the V-neck?"

"Yes. That one. You would look lovely in something like that."

Sasuke had officially fallen off his already cracked rocker. Not only did he think he was a vampire, but now he believed I was some sort of thirty-year-old cocktail-party attendee. I laughed out loud. "You really are crazy. That's designed—and priced—for women who do things like go to, I don't know, symphonies or something."

He shot me a look. "What's wrong with the symphony?"

"Nothing. Except that I don't go. I mean, can you see me in that at 4-H? I bet it costs a mint, too."

"Try the dress on."

I pulled back. "No way. I am one hundred percent sure that they don't like teenagers in there."

Sasuke scoffed. "They like anyone with enough money."

"Then they won't like me. I don't have enough money even to look."

"I do."

"Sasuke . . ." But I'll admit, I was kind of intrigued. It was a beautiful dress. I'd never even tried on anything like it. It was so . . . sophisticated. It was the color of fresh cream, with tiny, black, embroidered flowers scattered here and there across the whole thing, not really in any kind of pattern, but that only made it prettier somehow. It reminded me of chaos theory: random but beautiful in its simplicity. The neckline was more daring than anything I'd ever worn. You could see the swell of the mannequin's plastic breasts peeking out above the fabric. The expensive fabric. I tugged Sasuke's arm. "Come on. Let's go."

Sasuke pulled back, and of course he was stronger. "Just look. Every woman needs beautiful things."

"I don't need that."

"Of course you do. You could wear it to, say, this 'carnival' you're attending with me. It would be perfectly suitable for affairs like that."

"Try on the dress."

"I have plenty of clothes," I insisted. God why was he being so nice, no guy has ever tried buying me anything. I could feel the stinging in my eyes. "Sasuke why are you being so persistent?"

"Well four reasons, one being that every girls deserve something nice, two one day you're going to be my wife and I want you to know now I think you deserve the best, three you need something to wear for our date, four I feel like this dress will look beautiful on you."

I looked at him my eyes trying to fight back tears. Sasuke noticed and walked towards me pulling me into a hug. "Look Saku I don't know much about your past with time I will learn more. But please just allowed me to buy this, at least as an gift?"

I looked at him. He really found me beautiful didn't he. I sigh rubbing my eyes and pulling from our hug. "Fine, you win."

He smirked"Yes I know. And you should throw out all of your t-shirts. Especially the T-shirt with the white horse, the heart, and the letter I on the front. What is the purpose?"

"To show that I love Arabians," I said.

"I love rare steak, but I don't sport the image of raw beef on my chest."

"I already picked out an outfit."

Sasuke scowled. "Something shiny from 'the mall,' I suppose?"

I flushed. I hated when Sasuke was right.

"Believe me," he said. "If you wear that dress, you won't regret it. That was made for you."

I narrowed my eyes. "How do you know about dressing girls?"

"I don't know about dressing girls. I know about dressing women." Sasuke smiled archly. "Now come along. Indulge me. And the designer who picks my clothes gave me tips for when I married a women, how to buy her clothing gifts"

Sasuke led the way into the store, and I had to follow. As I'd predicted, the sales lady looked less than thrilled to see two high school students in her showroom. But Sasuke was oblivious. "That dress in the window, with the embroidery." He pointed to me. "She'd like to try that." Crossing his arms and leaning back slightly, he mentally measured my body, head to toe. "Size eight?"

"Ten," I mumbled.

"The ten is in the window on the mannequin," the sales-woman noted. She jammed her skinny, red-finger nailed hands on her hips. "It's very troublesome to bring it down. If you're not serious about it. . ."

Uh-oh. There wasn't much that I understood about Sasuke Uchiha, but I knew for a fact that the saleslady's tone would not sit well with him.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "Did I not sound serious?" He leaned forward, reading the woman's name tag. "Leigh Ann?"

"Come on, Sasuke ..." I started for the door.

"We're in rather a hurry, so if you could get it now, please," Sasuke said, holding his ground. It was suddenly very easy to imagine him ordering around servants in a castle.

The saleswoman narrowed her eyes, assessing Sasuke. Apparently she sniffed at least a hint of money in his cologne, heard it in his accent, or saw it in his swagger. "Fine," she huffed. "If you insist." She crawled up into the window and came back out a few minutes later with the dress. "Here," she said, draping it across my arms. "The dressing rooms are in the rear.

"Thank you," Sasuke said.

"Whatever." Leigh Ann moved behind the counter, proceeding to ignore us.

Sasuke followed me back toward the dressing rooms. I stopped him at the entrance with a firm hand on the chest. "You wait here."

"Let me see, though."

In the privacy of the dressing room, I kicked off my Chucks, wriggled out of my jeans and T-shirt, and slipped on the dress, wishing I was wearing a nicer bra. A bra that would do the dress justice.

Although it looked delicate, the fabric was heavier and softer than anything I'd ever owned. I zipped up the back as far as I could, the dress fell into place around me, and suddenly all the places I hated most on my body transformed into my best assets. My breasts filled out the bodice even better than the mannequin's angular, skimpy little peaks. Looking at myself in the mirror, I remembered what Sasukehad said about "pointy" girls and the benefits of having curves. In that dress, I understood what he meant.

The hem swirled around my knees, and I twirled a little, staring at my front. My back. The fabric swept close to my full hips and draped perfectly across my butt. Sasuke had been right. I looked good. It was like a magic dress.

"Well?" Sasuke called from outside the dressing room. "How is it?"

"It's pretty," I admitted, understating how I really felt. Which was beautiful

"Come out, then."

"Oh, I don't know ..." I was kind of embarrassed to show him. I glanced down at my chest. Skin usually covered by shirts was peeking out. The swell of my breasts—breasts I usually tried to de-emphasize—was visible for the world to see. For Sasuke to see. It wasn't obscene, by any standard.

But it was revealing for me.

"Saku, you promised."

"Oh . . . okay." I tried to pull up the bodice a little but to no avail. My curves refused to hide. "Don't laugh or anything. Or stare."

"I will not laugh," Sasuke promised. "There will be no reason to laugh. But I might stare."

Taking a deep breath, I shoved aside the curtain.

Sasuke was lounging in the chair set out for bored husbands, his long legs stretched in front of him. But when he saw me, he shot straight up. Like I'd jolted him. And I swore I saw appreciation in his black eyes.

"Well?" I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest as I spun to look in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"You—you look amazing." Sasuke stood, coming up behind me, never taking his eyes off me.

"Really?"

"Beautiful, Sakura," he murmured. "Beautiful."

Before I could remind him not to call me by that name, Sasuke stepped even closer to me, slipped his hand under my long, unruly hair, and pulled the zipper all the way up. "Women always need help with the last few inches."

I swallowed hard. How experienced was he? "Urn, thank you.

"My pleasure." Then, to my intense surprise, Lucius snaked his fingers into my curls and gathered them up into a big, loose twist on top of my head. Suddenly, my neck looked very long. "Now that's how a Romanian princess should look," he said, drawing down to whisper in my ear. "Don't ever again say that you are not 'valuable,' Sakura. Or not beautiful. Or, for god's sake, 'fat.' When you get the urge to indulge in such ridiculous, misplaced self-criticism, remember yourself at this moment."

No one had ever paid me a compliment like that. I had the urge to fight back my tears again. Most guys only said the worse for me.

For a minute, we stood there admiring me. I met Sasuke's eyes in the mirror. In that split second, I could almost picture us . . . together.

Then he released my hair. It tumbled down my back, and the spell was broken. I glanced down at the price tag. "Oh my gosh. I have got to take this off. Right now. Before I sweat on it or something."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "If you must refer to 'sweat' in reference to yourself—and I strongly discourage it—use the word perspire."

"I'm serious, Sasuke. I'm about to start perspiring over the price."

Sasuke bent to read the number on the tag and shrugged.

I hurried back to the dressing room, yanking on my jeans and lacing up my battered Chucks. The princess effect was definitely gone. Reluctantly, I handed the dress to the saleslady, who was waiting, holding a beautiful black cashmere wrap. "I'll box these up for you."

I glanced around for Sasuke and found him standing at the sales counter, tapping a credit card against the glass counter top.

"It's too much," I whispered, hurrying over.

"Consider it a thank-you for your shopping guidance today. My gift for your gala."

Leigh Ann carefully packaged the dress and the wrap in two boxes and handed them to me. "Enjoy." She had warmed considerably after the credit card had been approved.

"Have a nice day, Leigh Ann." Sasuke placed a hand on the small of my back, guiding me out of the store.

"I really don't know what to say," I stammered when we were outside. "It's such a huge gift. The dress alone cost a fortune, and the wrap is cashmere."

"It will no doubt be cool at night, and you can't wear a 'jean jacket' with that dress."

"Well, thank you."

"I told you. Every woman deserves beautiful things," Sasuke said. He paused outside, scanning the storefronts. "Couldn't you go for a Strawberry Julius about now?"


	22. Sharingan

After I did my chores, I wandered out to the garage. Sasuke was shooting foul shots, using a rusted old hoop that the rest of us had forgotten even existed. Dribble, aim, swish. I watched him make about ten in a row before I interrupted him. "Hey."

He turned around, tucking the ball under his arm, looking incredibly like an average American high school student in the Grantley College sweatshirt Mom had bought for him. Until he spoke. "Good evening, Saku. To what do I owe this visit?" I smiled you were going to show me your clan power. At the mention of his promise he stood up. "Look Saku there are two things I have to show you one I can't show you yet it only occurs when I'm training, in danger or battle."

"Okay then show me just one then." He nodded his head closing his eyes, I walked closer to him. After a couple of seconds he open his eyes. Crimson colored eyes appeared to me, his black obsidian eye no longer there, three black comas swirled in his eyes. "Sasuke?" I said in a low voice. "My eyes there ability allows me to have super vision I can see heat rays, things as far as an hawk can see. My eyes allow me to copy movement in battle, with my eyes I can make you see things that aren't really there, this is one of my family true power only an Uchiha vampire can obtain this gift its name is called sharingan."

I stared at him not believing this, I wanted to bring science and logic into this somehow and I did, although something deep down told me this was real _very _real. "Cool contact lenses where did you get them from?" His eyes swirled dangerously fast and I think I saw fangs coming from his mouth. "He turned his back to me without an word and continued to shoot baskets. "Sasuke?" I said a little worried. "Saku its best you leave."

"Why?" I asked not understanding why he was so mad at me.  
>"Saku this isn't a game why are you in denial? I try so hard to respect your American culture I even went through with wearing American clothing I'm trying to fit in and understand. I even respected your wishes by not calling you Sakura. Insulting my family power is… is just not…" He shook his head and turned around his eyes hard black making me cringe and back away a little. "You know what Saku I'm going to make you my bride weather you know it or not." His anger disappeared and a cocky smirk appeared on his face, I suddenly felt a tingle in my lower regions.<p>

He turned around and continues shooting baskets, "I'm sorry Sasuke but it's just unbelievable for me right now." He shrugged his shoulders, I guess he was pissed. I guess I would be too but somehow his mood bother me and I realized him being upset makes me upset especially seeing there's nothing I can do right now to make him feel better.

"Sorry Sasuke." I turned around and walked inside the house watching him before I closed the door.


	23. 3rd Letter

DEAR UNCLE MADARA,

Best wishes as we approach All Hallows' Eve. You would so enjoy the universally naive but ubiquitous depictions of vampires the Americans somewhat compulsively display at this time of year. One would think our entire race consisted of pale, middle-aged men with a genetic tendency toward "widow's peaks" and a penchant for the over application of hair gel.

But getting to the point. I am loath to admit that I increasingly see the situation here slipping from my control.

As per my last correspondence, I have tried numerous "American" strategies to at least build a rapport with Sakura— including donning "jeans" (quite comfortable, actually) and, as I've mentioned, playing basketball, a sport for "popular kids." (Just call me "Number 23.") Thus far, Sakura seems less than impressed with my best efforts, though. She is actually getting

Honestly, Sakura ugh. I purchased for her the most magnificent dress— really, if you had seen her in it, you would have judged her nearly ready to take the throne. . . . For the briefest moment, I thought we had made progress. The look in her own eyes as she watched herself in the mirror . . . She was altered, Madara. And altered toward me . . . I could have sworn it.

And yet she insulted the sharingan calling it contacts. Good thing I didn't show her my susanno otherwise it would've been a costume.

Damn. I'm blathering.

The point is, I quite fear that you will be disappointed with me if I fail to convince Sakura to honor the pact and accept me as her husband. And, in all candors, your disappointment is a rather formidable prospect. Thus I feel compelled to keep you updated on the situation as it unfolds. I certainly wouldn't want to present you with an unanticipated failure. I would much rather prepare you for the worst eventuality— even as I fully intend to continue my efforts.

But I think I found the key to winning her, I can't tell you my plans now but I will when I'm sure that it will work.

Your nephew, most humbly,

Sasuke

P.S. If anyone offers you "saag," decline if at all possible to do so without breaking the rules of polite society. Is there any chance the cook might ship a frozen hare or two this way?

P.P.S. The investment I've made with your advance on my trust will arrive soon. I am rather looking forward to it.


	24. Horses

"HEY, BELLE." I grinned, giving my Appaloosas muscular neck a firm pat. "Ready for a workout? Only a few more practice sessions before the show." My grin quickly faded, though. The 4-H show, just a few weeks away, had seemed like a good idea when Id signed up, but now I was suffering from some serious attacks of nerves.

Well, it was too late to back out. Or was it?

As I reached for Belles bridle, lifting it from a nail in the wall, I heard a truck pull up outside the barn. A door slammed, and I glanced toward the barn door to see a stranger walking toward me. A stocky man in dirty coveralls, holding a clipboard.

"Can I help you?" I offered.

"You know a . . ." He glanced at the clipboard. "A Sas Uchi . . . here." He extended the roster. "I can't make out that name."

"Oh, no." My heart sank. I didn't even have to look. "Uchiha. What did he do now? Did he order something?"

"Yeah. And he needs to take delivery of this monster that's kicking my trailer all to hell. I want that thing out of there now."

"Monster?"

"You're looking for me?" As if on cue at the word monster, Sasuke appeared from out of the shadows, accepted the clip-board and a pen, and signed.

"I hope you know what you're doing," the delivery man said, shaking his head.

"Oh, I'm sure I do."

I followed as Sasuke and the man strode through the in-door riding ring, headed toward the door.

"Sasuke? What did you buy?"

The delivery man called over his shoulder, answering on Sasuke's behalf. "Your friend bought a murderous horse. Thing ought to be put down."

"Sasuke?" We all passed through the barn door and arrived at the dirt drive, where I saw a horse trailer.

Rocking. Thudding sounds were coming from inside.

"You get her out, kid," the man insisted. "I'm not touching that thing again."

Without hesitation, Sasuke approached the rear of the trailer, unlatched it, and opened the door.

"Um . . . Sasuke? Should you go in there?"

"Kid's dead meat," the delivery man noted.

There was the sound of a scuffle, then I heard Lucius's voice calming the animal, and hooves against metal. Then silence. A long silence. And finally Sasuke emerged, leading a very skittish, very powerful horse. The blackest horse I had ever seen. It had to stand a full nineteen hands high. Its eyes rolled wildly, showing whites against its ebony face. I stepped back as it passed by, but it shied, and then nipped at me.

"Easy, there," Sasuke soothed. He called back to me, "Sorry, she's a tad excitable."

The delivery man took off, muttering about broken skulls, and I followed Sasuke, who was persuading his new mount to enter a stall. Right next to Belle's.

"I want them to be neighbors." Sasuke smiled.

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "Great."

"Easy," Sasuke told the mare again as she snapped at his fingers. He clapped his hand across her muzzle, struggling with her as he hooked her halter to both sides of the stall. When she was contained, he released her, and she took one last lunge at him, clipping his forearm with her teeth. "Dammit!" He shook out his arm.

I planted my feet and crossed my arms. "You bought a horse? That horse?"

"Yes," Sasuke said, rubbing the bite. "I recall a while back that you said—and I quote—that we 'have nothing in com-mon."' He jerked a thumb toward his hell horse. "This is something we can share. An activity. A way for us to spend time together."

"You're not joining 4-H," I told him.

"My commemorative club jacket is being embroidered as we speak." He grinned. "I do so look forward to wearing that blue corduroy. You do know that 'corduroy' means 'fabric of kings,' right? Appropriate, I think."

"But I thought you had sort of given up . . ."

Sasuke frowned, stroking his horse's muzzle. This time she flinched but didn't snap. "You thought I'd forgotten a pact that I have been prepared to fulfill since childhood just because I endure Squatty Boy's crude advances toward you? I think not."

"Stop calling him squatty and stop insinuating that he's stupid. Naruto is a very nice guy."

"Nice. Now that's an overrated quality." Sasuke unhitched one side of the ropes restraining his horse, and she half reared. He patted the mare's neck. "Isn't nice overrated?" He paused, turning to me. "What should I name her?" he mused. "She needs a name if I'm to enter her in the jumper class."

"You can't," I cried. "I'm competing in that."

"I know. I thought we could practice together."

"I already told you, I don't want your help."

"You're not afraid of a little friendly competition, are you?"

I stamped my foot. In part because, no, I didn't want to compete with him. He was a natural athlete. A Romanian all-star polo player. I also didn't want him to start skulking around the barn. "I told you I don't want to ride with you."

"You are completely overreacting."

"And you are a stupid . . . stupid . . . vampire! You never listen to me. I specifically told you not to interfere in this part of my life. We live together, go to school together. .. This is one place where I don't have you bugging me all the time."

"A vampire?" The voice came from close behind us.

Uh-oh.

Sasuke and I both swung around to see a very curious, somewhat bemused Karin watching our argument. Her lightly tanned arms were crossed over her tight cheerleading-camp T-shirt, and her blond ponytail bobbed, gleaming in the dim light, as she cocked her head. "Did you just call him a vampire?"

I stammered, grasping for an explanation. "He's . . . he's sucking the life out of me today," I finally said.

"Saku's full of pet names for me." Sasuke smirked, nonplussed. He extended his hand. "So nice to see you outside of the classroom, Karin."

Oh, brother.

Karin seemed a little surprised, but extended her hand, too. "Urn . . . you too, Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't shake. He grazed her knuckles with his lips. "Charmed, as always."

"Oh. Wow. That was different." Faith withdrew her hand, addressing me, the stable hand, as an afterthought. "Hey, Saki."

"It's Saku."

"Right." But Karins attention had shifted again, to the un-named horse. "What a beautiful mare. I saw you bringing her in. She looks dangerous, though."

Sasuke unhooked the other lead, freeing his new perilous pet. "I find that horses, like people, are boring if completely broken. I prefer a little spirit." The animal jerked its head, but Sasuke soothed her. "Calm down now." He addressed Karin and me. "She's been treated hard, poor beast. Unpleasant childhood."

"Unpleasant?" Karin cocked her head.

"Don't ever come near her with a crop or a whip," Sasuke advised. "That's what the previous owner strongly suggested. Apparently her first master had a quite heavy hand."

Raised under the whip. I thought of Sasuke's own admission that he'd been hit by his uncles. Again and again. I wondered if he had deliberately chosen the mare for the cruel connection they shared. It seemed like something he would do.

Karin and I both stepped back, dodging quickly, as Sasuke led the mare out of the stall.

"You're not going to ride her, are you?" I asked, incredulous.

Sasuke frowned. "That's what one does with horses, right?"

"I have a spare saddle," Karin offered.

I glared at Karin. "No! Are you serious?" Normally Karin wasn't the type of person whose actions you questioned, but I couldn't believe she thought Sasuke should make any attempt to ride the mare with the diabolical look in her eyes and the snapping jaws. "Sasuke, don't even think about it."

"Oh, I don't think she'd like a saddle," he said. "Not yet. I'll let her get used to carrying just me first."

I shook my head. "You're going to get killed."

Sasuke shot me a conspiratorial look. "You, of all people, should know that's unlikely. Animals can't use tools."

Without further hesitation, he swept to the horse's side and leapt onto her back, with the same ease he demonstrated doing layups on the basketball court. The mare immediately whinnied and wheeled, but Sasuke lived up to his boasts. Within seconds, he brought her under control, and the two madman and mad animal—proceeded into the center of the ring at a brisk but controlled clip, Sasuke guiding with his knees and the halter. Every few steps, the horse shied or twisted back to nip at Sasuke's legs. But the two kept a steady, if edgy, partnership. "We'll be jumping in no time," Sasuke called, grinning.

He was doing it. Riding the meanest-looking mare I'd ever seen. My relief was short-lived as I realized exactly what his survival meant for me. When it came time for the 4-H show, I'd be competing with both Faith Crosse and a Romanian all-star on a devil horse.

Sasuke urged his mount into a trot. Then a canter. It was half dance, half barroom brawl.

"Wow." Karin watched with appreciation. "Sasuke must have, like, some kind of magic. I really thought he'd get killed."

"Give him time," I replied under my breath. "Just give him time. Someone'll kill him yet.


	25. Guilt?

So I and Sasuke couldn't attend the carnival together seeing as he had an unexpected basketball practice. So when I saw Naruto I asked him to take me, of course he accepted it. Finally a date with him. Of course he thought I looked good with the dress on that Sasuke…. Bought me I couldn't help but feel guilty so I pushed the thought of him away.

"THANKS FOR WINNING me the plush hot dog." I squeezed the big stuffed wiener Naruto had won by throwing two softballs through a clown's mouth. "I had a great time at the carnival."

"Sorry I couldn't get the bear."

"Well, a hot dog's nice. It's different, you know?"

We were sitting in Naruto's big Chevy 4x4, idling in front of the farm, trying to figure out how to say good night. Was I supposed to just hop out of the truck at this point? Would he get out, too?

"Did I tell you that you look really great in that dress?" Naruto asked.

He hadn't, but I'd seen the look in his eyes when he'd come to the door to pick me up. The same admiration that I'd seen in Sasuke's eyes back in the boutique. All night long, I'd caught guys checking me out. At first I'd felt a little self-conscious. But it was easy to get used to that kind of attention.

"I like your hair up like that, too," Naruto added.

I twisted one of the tendrils that straggled out of my up do. I'd done my best to mimic the effect Sasuke had achieved just by twining his fingers in my hair. "Thanks."

"I'm glad you asked me to go with you. I had a great time."

There was a long pause.

"I guess I'll get going," I finally said, resting my hand on the door handle.

"Oh . . . uh, yeah. I'll get the door." Naruto shut off the engine and jumped out, coming around to my opened my door, and I tried to climb down, almost falling in my heels.

"Crap!" Classy, Saku.

As I stumbled, though, Naruto caught me, and suddenly we were very close to each other. Face to face.

That's when he kissed me. Really kissed me. His lips were softer than I expected, and a little wet. My lips parted slightly, like I'd seen on TV and in the movies for years and years. It seemed so natural as it was happening—and then our tongues met. Naruto kind of squashed his tongue against mine. So this is what it's like. . . . The feeling wasn't electric, but I felt a thrill of happiness only because it was my first kiss, but to be honest it wasn't that great I didn't feel that spark. Naruto continued to kiss me wrapping his arms around me, a bearlike embrace. A wrestler's hug. Our tongues twisted around and around and Naruto stroked the small of my back. Naruto pulled away first. "I got to get going, or I'll break curfew. I'll call you, okay?"

I realized I was still clutching the stuffed toy. "Yeah. Sure."

He leaned in to kiss me again. A light, sweet touch on the lips. "Later."

"Bye." I stood there watching as the truck pulled away.

When the taillights had almost disappeared into the darkness, I walked toward the porch, swishing the hem of my dress against my knees. My first real kiss and it wasn't the best. I sighed.

"Well, how was it?"

The deep voice coming from the darkness startled me, stopping me short. I peered into the gloom.

"Sasuke?"

"I'm right here."

I followed his voice to the front porch steps, where he sat in the shadows next to a dimly flickering jack-o'-lantern. I walked closer. "You were spying on me."

Sasuke held out a bowl. "I'm on candy duty. Want some? I think it's mostly soy nuts left. The children were not happy with the selection."

I accepted a pack and sat down next to him on the step. "We don't get many trick-or-treaters out here.

Nobody lives within a mile."

"Oh." Sasuke shrugged. "I guess it was me that hated the soy nuts." He pulled the stuffed hot dog from my arms. "Your parents won't like this in the house. Meat toys. Did Squatty win that with some feat of physical prowess?" He tossed the wiener over his shoulder, onto a chair on the porch.

I ignored the taunt. "You were waiting for me, weren't your Sasuke stared into the dark distance. "How was it?"

"How was what?"

"He kissed you. How was it?"

I smiled, remembering. "Nice."

"Nice?" Sasuke gave a short, derisive snort. "I repeat one more time: Nice is overrated."

"Please, don't go there," I urged. Don't ruin this.

"When you kiss the right person, it will be a hell of a lot better than nice," Sasuke grumbled.

"You have no right to say that." I stood to go inside, smoothing my dress. He would not spoil this moment for me. It would not happen.

To my surprise, Sasuke relented. "You are right. That was rude. I had no right." He patted the step.

"Please. Keep me company. I find that I'm melancholy this evening."

"You should have gone to the carnival," I said, sitting back down.

Sasuke took a deep breath, exhaled. "There's nothing there for me."

"It was kind of fun. There were games, and we—"

"Do you ever, for one minute, look at my life from my perspective?" Sasuke interrupted, a bit sharply. "Think about how I might feel?" He turned to face me, his eyes glowing dimly, like the jack-o'-lantern's.

"Do you ever look beyond yourself?"

"What? Are you . . . homesick or something?"

"Something likes that, yes." The glimmer flickered to life. "For god's sake. I live in a garage, away from everything I've ever known. I'm sent here to court a woman who dismisses me in favor of a peasant—"

"Naruto is a perfectly nice guy, Sasuke."

Sasuke snorted again. "Is that what you want out of life? Nice? Must everything be nice?"

"Nice is . . . nice," I protested.

Sasuke shook his head. "Oh, Sakura. I could show you things so far beyond nice, they'd spin your lovely head." His voice had changed suddenly. Grown even lower and more throaty. There was a quality in it I'd never heard before but instinctively recognized. Sexual power. Lust. Desire. An edgy, angry, frustrated desire.

"Sasuke . . . maybe we should go inside."

But he only edged nearer, spoke more softly, yet still with that hint of barely suppressed frustration. "I could show you things that would make you forget everything you know here, in your safe little life ..." I swallowed hard. What can he show me? What kind of not-nice things? Do I want to know?

Yes. No. Maybe.

"Sasuke . . ."

"Sakura." He leaned even closer to me, and I found that he was breathing hard, and so was I. Inhaling the power he al-ways exuded, sharing his rarified air. "Don't you ever wonder about that part of you? The part that is Sakura?"

"Sakura is just a name . . ."

"No. Sakura is a person. A part of you." Then Sasuke caressed my cheek, tracing it with his thumb, and I found my-self closing my eyes, sort of swaying, like I was a cobra under the spell of a snake charmer. I knew I should stop whatever was happening, but I just sat there, swaying.

"That other half of you. That half would not settle for 'nice,'" Sasuke said softly. He cupped my chin, and

I could feel his breath on my mouth now. Cool and close. "I finally saw it, that part of your being, your spirit, when you put on that dress . . . You look so beautiful in that dress. It transforms you ..."

My dress ... I'd started to enjoy a sense of power when guys had watched me at the carnival. But with Sasuke, I felt that power slip out of my control and into his hands. He took the reins as surely as he did with his half-wild horse. And that was terrifying. I licked my lips, stomach taut with that queer mix of hunger and loathing and fear that I'd felt that first time he'd bared those teeth up in his room.

Will he do that again? Will he? Should he?

"Sakura." His lips barely touched mine, and a craving ripped through me, like the craving in my dream for that decadent, irresistible, forbidden chocolate. No. . . I just kissed Naruto. . . . I don't want to want Sasuke. . . . He was everything I didn't want. He thought he was a goddamn vampire. And yet I felt myself pressing against him, felt my hand reaching up of its own accord to stroke his jaw, where the scar was, a jagged path of smooth skin tracing through the rough stubble. The violence in his childhood. . . it had made him hard. Dangerous, even? Maybe?

Sasuke's arm slipped around my back, and he brushed my lips again, less gently this time. Even his mouth was hard. But I wanted to taste more. "Like this, Sakura," he murmured. "This is how it should be . . .not nice. . ."

He was tempting me to want more. The image of him zipping up my dress, assured, knowing, flashed through my brain. Experienced. . . Mom had warned me. Don't get in over your head, Saku. . . .

Sasuke slid his hand up to my neck, circling the nape with his fingers, his thumb stroking the hollow of my throat. "Let me kiss you, Sakura . . . really kiss you ... as you should be kissed."

"Please, Sasuke . . ." Was I begging or protesting?

"You belong with me," he said softly. "With our kind . . . You know you do . . . Stop fighting it. . . Stop fighting me. . ."

No!

I must have cried out loud, because Sasuke pulled back abruptly. "No?" His voice was incredulous, his eyes filled with shock and uncertainty.

My mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. Yes? No? "I just... I just kissed Naruto," I finally stuttered. "A few minutes ago." Wasn't it wrong to mess around with two guys on one night? Wasn't that sort of. . . slutty? What the hell was this dress making me do? And that thing he'd said about "'our kind..."

No.

Sasuke yanked his hand from my throat and leaned forward on the steps, doubling himself over, digging his hands into his long, black hair with a sound that was half groan, half growl.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry . . ."

"Don't say that."

"But I am sorry .. ." Yet I didn't quite know what I was sorry for. For kissing Naruto? For almost kissing Sasuke? For making us stop?

"Go inside, Saku." Sasuke was still bent over his knees, fingers laced in his hair. "Now. Please."

And then the front door opened. "I thought I heard voices out here," Dad said, pretending to be oblivious to the obvious tension.

"Dad," I squeaked, popping up. "I just got home. Sasuke and I were talking."

"It's getting late," Dad said, pulling me to his side. "And Sasuke, I think it's safe to say trick or treat is over. You should probably head up to bed."

"Of course, sir." Sasuke slowly unfolded himself and rose to his feet, too. He seemed weary as he handed the bowl to my dad. "Happy All Hallows' Eve."

"Yeah, good night," I said. Then I tore inside, ran upstairs, and yanked off my dress, tossing it to the back of my closet. I tugged at my hair until it tumbled back down around my shoulders. All back in place and normal. After pulling on a T-shirt and sweats to sleep in, I crept to the window and looked out at the garage. But Sasuke's light was off. He'd gone to bed. Or perhaps he'd gone out into the night.

Mom knocked on my door. "Saku? Are you all right?"

"Fine, Mom," I lied.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No." I just kept watching Sasuke's window, not sure what I was looking for. "I just want to sleep."

"Well, then . . . good night, honey."

Mom's footsteps receded down the hall and I climbed into bed, shutting my eyes tight. I would not—would not—wonder what would draw Sasuke into the darkness. Given the mood I'd left him in, I honestly feared it might be something "not nice


	26. 4th Letter

DEAR MADARA,

What a mess here. What a mess. This would be so much easier to express if you'd just try e-mail. It's available everywhere these days. Do consider it, please, for the duration.

Until then, I have the difficult task of informing you via post that the entire pact seems to stagger, endlessly and irrevocably, to-ward oblivion.

This evening . . . where to begin? What to say?

If that was not the moment, then I don't know what more I can do. If Sakura did not feel as I felt at that instant in time, if she had the presence of mind to pull back, actually to cry out "No!" to me when I will admit I was too far lost to her . . . I honestly don't know what more I can do.

I am sure you can infer, from the lines above, what passed between us, in a general sense. I will not disgrace myself— or dishonor Sakura— by elaborating with details. To do so would be not only humiliating but ungentlemanly. And surely you understand.

Have I really been bested by a peasant? A squatty, obtuse, parasitical peasant?

Perhaps in the morning, the situation will appear less grim. One can only hope.

In the meantime, I don't suppose you might offer me some in-sights into the punishment I will face in the event of failure on my part? I should like to begin preparing myself mentally. Especially if I face the worst. I have always preferred to confront fate with shoulders back and head high, as you taught me. And one can best do that if one has the opportunity to steel oneself.

Yours in doubt and with no small measure of confusion and concern, Sasuke


	27. Competition

"YOU'RE GOING TO do fine, dear," Mom promised, pinning my number on the back of my riding jacket.

"I'm going to throw up," I said. "Why did I sign up for this?"

"Because we grow by challenging ourselves," my mom replied.

"If you say so." In a few minutes, my turn would come. I would ride Belle into the 4-H ring, and we would jump a series of obstacles.

The whole thing would last about three minutes, tops.

So why was I so terrified?

Because you might fall. Belle might balk. You're not an athlete; you're a mathlete. . . .

"I should have just raised a calf, like last summer," I said, groaning. "All you have to do is walk into the ring and wait to see if you won a ribbon."

"Saku, you are a fine horsewoman," Mom insisted, spinning me around by the shoulders to look into my eyes. "And it's not as though you've never competed in front of people before ..."

"But that's math," I protested. "I'm good at math."

"You're a good rider, too."

I thought of Karin and Sasuke. "But not the best."

"Then today is an excellent time to push your boundaries. Risk a second or even third place." I glanced across the field, where Sasuke was cantering on his horse, which he'd named "Hell's Belle."

Ha-ha.

"Risks aren't always so great," I said, watching Sasuke work to control the still half-wild animal. Sasuke was the only one who could touch her. He insisted that she was misunderstood, but I thought the mare was just plain evil.

"That's a little too risky," Mom conceded, following my gaze. She sighed. "I hope he's going to be all right."The way she said it, I got the weird feeling that she wasn't just talking about the jumper class competition.

"He needs his number, too," Mom added. She shaded her eyes, waving to Sasuke. He raised a hand, acknowledging, and trotted over, dropping from his mount and looping the reins around a fence post. Hell's Belle would never be the kind of horse that could wait without a tether.

Sasuke bowed slightly. "Dr. Haru. Saku."

I gave a small, uncomfortable wave. "Hey, Sasuke."

He turned around, and my mom pinned on his number. To my surprise, Mom then spun Sasuke around, just like she'd done with me—and hugged him. Surprise blew up to shock when Sasuke actually hugged back. When did those two bond? Sometime since Halloween, I guessed. Sasuke and I had given each other a wide berth since our weird moment on the porch.

"Good luck," my mother said, brushing imaginary lint off Sasuke's impeccable, perfectly fitted show coat.

"And wear your helmet," she added. "It's mandatory."

"Yes, yes, safety first," Sasuke said, voice dripping sarcasm. "I'll go find it." He looked at me, eyes neutral. "Good luck."

"You, too."

Sasuke untied his horse and led her off. Mom watched him, face tense.

"He'll be fine," I promised her.

"I hope."

"I'm second, right?" I asked.

"Yes. After Karin."

toughest act I could possibly follow. Karin didn't just compete in the annual 4-H show. She did bigger horse shows on her expensive gelding. My stomach clenched again.

"You'll do great," Mom promised. She hugged me, too.

The intercom blared, and it was time.

"Let's go."

Of course, Karin completed a flawless run on her thoroughbred, Moon Dance. She dominated the course, her horse's fleet, fine-boned legs launching them both over every fence, even the fifth, which loomed like a tower, impossibly high from where I was waiting on the sidelines. I really needed to pee, a nervous pee, but there was no time. I mounted up as Moon Dance's hooves pounded by, run completed.

"Next up, Saku Haku, Woodrow Wilson High School, riding Belle, a five-year-old Appaloosa."

They'd said my name.

I took a deep breath, catching sight of Naruto, who watched from the bleachers. He grinned, giving me an okay sign. I forced myself to smile back. Sasuke was also in the arena, watching, leaning against the fence. Dammit. Like I needed his hypercritical eyes on me, judging me. I glanced over my shoulder, wondering what would happen if my horse and I just sort of backed out. . . . But it was too late. There was no turning back.

Taking a deep breath, I dug in my heels. Belle's hooves thudded quietly in the thick dirt of the nearly silent arena. Feeling my horse's power, her familiar steps beneath me, I began to focus. The first obstacle approached. A hedge. We cantered, jumped, and cleared it. You're just jumping with Belle. Just like at home. We cleared the next low rails, and the nerves faded, replaced by exultation. All of those people were watching us, and we were doing it. Belle cleared the next two fences, hooves not even nipping at the rails. The fifth, highest fence loomed, and my heart thudded. But Belle lifted, soared, and we were past. A perfect round. No faults. In the end, we'd completed a perfect round. A huge, victorious smile broke across my face. Take that, Romanian all-star.

As I cantered toward the exit, I waved to my parents, who were cheering, and to Naruto, who had both fingers jammed in his mouth, whistling. Seeking out Sasuke, I saw that he was clap-ping heartily, hands raised, and he mouthed "Good show." Whatever had broken between us, it had just been fixed a little.

I returned from cooling down Belle just in time to see Sasuke's round.

He sat easily, regally, on Hell's Belle, as if he'd been born there. The midnight black horse seemed strangely calm, too. Nudging her flanks, Sasuke urged her to a canter, rising close to a full gallop. The pace was insane for the small course, but Sasuke didn't seem to notice. There was a small smile on his lips as he approached the first fence. Hell's Belle flew over, landing smoothly, and I realized this was a horse born to jump. They seemed fused together, horse and rider, tearing up the course, Hell's Belle reaching twice as high as she needed to clear, and all at once the spectators were cheering. Gasping and cheering.

It was reckless. Too reckless. I glanced at my parents in the stands. They looked terrified, and suddenly I was, too.

As Sasuke soared over the fifth fence, a hand clamped down on my wrist, causing me to jump. "Look at him go," Karin whispered to no one in particular. I was pretty sure she hadn't even realized who she touched; she was watching Sasuke that intently. Karin tapped her riding crop absently against her calf, in time to the hoof beats. I tugged my arm away.

"Sorry," Karin murmured, without removing her gaze from Sasuke.

Hell's Belle cleared the last fence, and the announcer called a new 4-H record for time.

Sasuke and the horse pulled up in front of the gate, and Sasuke slipped down, coolly peeling off his riding gloves like he'd just been on a trail ride through a park, seemingly oblivious to the applause.

Always the show-off.

"I'm going to congratulate him," Karin said.

I caught a peculiar look in the future prom queens eyes.

Karin disappeared into the crowd, headed for the exit, following Sasuke out behind the ring. That's when I thought about the riding crop. Hell's Belle would not like the crop. Sasuke had even posted a warning sign in the barn—a sign I saw almost every day. "Karin, wait," I called, following.

But I was too slow. By the time I caught up with her behind the barn, Karin had reached Sasuke and Hell's Belle, and was waving the crop, calling for Sasuke's attention. The crop nipped the horse's flank, and Hell's Belle spun around in a fury, backing away, nearly ripping the reins from Sasuke's hands before he realized what was happening.

I heard him order Karin to drop the crop, but it was too late. The mare reared, pawing the air, too close to Karin. I screamed, seeing what was about to happen, as Sasuke pushed Karin away, putting himself in front of the flailing hooves, falling under them. There was a sickening, audible crack as the force of Hell's Belle's hooves, driven by a full ton of sinew and muscle, collided with Sasuke's legs and ribs. It was all over in seconds, before I could even scream again, and Sasuke was lying, his tall body folded, broken, on the grass. There was blood on his white shirt, blood seeping from his high leather boot and staining his fawn-colored riding breeches.

"Sasuke!" I finally found my voice, crying out, running over, dropping beside him. I was so scared for him that I completely forgot about the dangerous beast looming over my shoulder, still loose.

"Catch her," Sasuke insisted through clenched teeth, trying to roll over, gesturing toward the horse, which stood, flanks heaving, scared but still wary. "You can do it. Before she—"

Karin began crying, abruptly and loudly as reality sank in, but no one heard us out behind the barn. Everyone was inside now, watching the competition. Hell's Belle stood, head low, snorting like a furious sentinel over Sasuke. I could feel her hot breath on my own neck, and then I got scared for me, too. No sudden moves. . .

"She needs to be tied up, Saku," Sasuke begged, wincing with the effort of the words. I nodded mutely, knowing he was right. Standing very slowly, as slowly as possible, I turned. "Easy, girl," I whispered, extending my hands, palms up. The horse flinched, and so did I. Just stay calm, Saku. . . . I edged closer. Hell's Belle's eyes spun more wildly, but she didn't run. Didn't lash out.

She seemed to understand that something had gone horribly wrong. With shaking hands, I reached for her loose reins, dangling from her bridle. "Easy, girl." Keeping my eyes on the horses, I located the reins with my fingertips. Her breath kept coming heavy and fast, but still she didn't move. Sasuke groaned. I had to work more quickly. Moving with more assurance, but trembling fingers, I fumbled to tie the reins to a post.

Thank god. She was secure.

I hurried back to Sasuke, who was clutching his ribs through his bloody shirt. Kneeling, I grabbed his free hand. "It's okay," I promised. But I couldn't help glancing at his leg. The break had happened at midcalf, the leather boot actually bent. "Get help," I called to Karin, who seemed paralyzed, wailing over and over, "It was an accident."

"Get someone!" I yelled at her again. "Now!"

This woke her up, and Karin turned to run.

"No," Sasuke barked, louder than I would have thought possible, given the twisted state of his body. But something in his tone caught Karin up short, and she spun around. "Get Saku's parents. No one else." Karin hesitated, panicked, puzzled, unsure. She looked to me.

"Get the paramedics," I begged Karin. What was Sasuke doing? He needed an ambulance.

"Saku's parents only," Sasuke said, speaking right over me, in his most commanding tone. He clutched my hand so I couldn't go.

"I . . . I. .." Karin started to say something.

"Go," Sasuke ordered.

Karin ran. I prayed that she would get the paramedics "Damn this hurts." Sasuke groaned; face twisting as a wave of pain shot through him. He squeezed my hand. "Just stay here, would you?"

"I'm not going anywhere," I said, willing my voice not to quiver. I was terrified and struggling not to let Sasuke see my fear. A trickle of blood seeped from his mouth, and I stifled the urge to cry out. That couldn't be good. That could mean internal bleeding. I wiped the crimson liquid away with shaky fingers, and a tear fell on his cheek. I hadn't even realized I was crying.

"Please, don't do that." Sasuke gasped, meeting my eyes. "Don't fall apart on me. Remember: You're royalty." I squeezed his hand tighter. "I'm not crying. Just hang in there." He shifted a little, winced. "You know. . . this can't kill a. . . God, was he still going to do that vampire shtick now? I didn't believe for a second that he couldn't die.

"Lie still." And hope that Karin ignores your commands.

"This leg .. . Dammit." His chest heaved, and he coughed. More blood. A lot of blood. Too much blood.

It was coming from his lungs. Probably a puncture. I had taken enough first aid training at school to know a little bit about accidents. I swiped his lips with my sleeve, but that only smeared more blood on both of us. "Help's coming," I promised. But will it be too little, too late?

On instinct I smoothed Sasuke's dark hair with my free hand. His face relaxed just a shade; his breathing calmed slightly. So I kept my hand there, resting on his forehead.

"Saku?" He searched my face with his eyes.

"Don't talk."

"I ... I think you deserve ... a ribbon."

In spite of myself, I laughed, a ragged, clenching laugh, and bent to kiss his forehead. It just happened. It just felt like the right thing to do. "So do you." His eyes closed. I sensed his consciousness was slipping away. "And Saku?"

"Be quiet."

"Don't let them do anything ... to my horse," he managed, through difficult breaths. "She didn't mean …any harm. It was just the crop, you know . . ."

"I'll try, Sasuke," I promised. But I knew I wouldn't succeed. Hell's Belle's reprieve was over.

"Thank you, Sakura . .." His voice was almost inaudible.

"Sasuke-kun if you make it through this I promise to go on a date with you." I don't know why I said that and even more so I called him Sasuke-kun, what the hell is happening to me? He gave me a faint smile saying he'll like that.

From around the side of the barn I heard car tires on grass. I exhaled with a small measure of relief. Karin had gone for the ambulance. But no. When the vehicle spun around the corner, it was a beat-up VW van with my dad at the wheel. My parents jumped out, fear on their faces, and pushed me out of the way. "Take me to your home," Sasuke begged, coming around a little. "You understand ..."

Mom spun around to face me. "Open the back of the van," she ordered.

"Mom—he needs an ambulance!"

"Do it, Saku."

I started to cry again then, because I didn't understand what was happening, and I didn't want to take part in killing Sasuke. But I did as I was told.

My parents lifted Sasuke into the van as gently as they could, but he still moaned, even though he was now fully unconscious, the pain so bad that it must have ripped through even his insensate brain. I started to crawl in after him, but Dad stopped me with a firm hand on my shoulder. Mom climbed in instead, crouching next to Sasuke.

"You stay here and explain what happened," Dad said. "Tell them . . . tell them we took Sasuke to the hospital." I saw the lie in my father's face, and my eyes widened. "You are taking him there, aren't you?"

"Just tell everyone he's okay," Dad said, not quite answering my question. "Then take care of the horse."

It was too much, what they were asking. What if they really didn't take him to the hospital and Sasuke died? They would be responsible. Maybe accused of negligence, or some sort of murder. Karin had seen that Sasuke wasn't okay. She knew he needed a doctor. And 4-H would check to see that he'd been hospitalized. Liability issues and all that. What the hell were my parents doing? They could go to jail. And for what? It made no sense to keep Sasuke away from a hospital.

But there was no time to protest, no time to ask for guidance. Sasuke needed to get somewhere warm, at least. Hope-fully someplace where people knew how to handle broken bones and bleeding lungs. As long as it wasn't our kitchen, where Dad might attempt some herbal cure . . .

My chest seized again with dread. If my parents were going to try some sort of "natural healing" on Sasuke—they were so far out of their league. All of these things spun through my mind as I followed on foot behind the old van, staring helplessly as it bumped out of the grassy area and bounced through the gravel parking lot, as fast as Dad could drive without, presumably, arousing suspicion or jostling Sasuke too much.

I was still standing there watching a cloud of receding, drifting dust, when Karin reappeared at my side, more composed. Her eyes were rimmed red, but her shoulders were stiffly at attention again. Still, her voice caught, just a hitch, when she asked, "Do you think he's going to ... to be ... ?"

"He'll be fine," I promised, lying more smoothly than I'd thought possible. But I had to sound convincing.

My whole family's survival, not just Sasuke's, was at stake. "I don't think his injuries were as bad as we thought at first," I added. "No?" Karin shot me a skeptical look. But it was a hopeful look, too. I realized she wanted to believe the lie. After all, she didn't want to be responsible for Sasuke's injury—or death.

"He sat up a little," I told her, forcing myself to meet Karin's ocean blue eyes. "And made a joke." The tension in Karin's face eased, and I knew she had willed herself to believe me. She was so desperate to be absolved. "It must have just looked bad at first because it happened so fast..."

"Yeah, probably," I agreed. "It was definitely scary, at first."

Karin's gaze drifted off toward the parking lot, as if she expected to still see the van driving away. I noticed then that she continued to hold the crop, and tapped it idly against her boot. I would have tossed that thing in the trash, ground it into dust. How could she have not seen the sign in our barn? The answer was so easy it was almost laughable. Because Karin didn't see anything beyond her own small sphere of concern. That's why. "Even if he wasn't as bad off as we thought why he didn't want the paramedics?" she wondered aloud.

I wasn't quite sure myself, but I had a feeling it had some-thing to do with Sasuke's delusions about being a vampire. That definitely wasn't a suitable answer for Karin, though, so I ventured, "I think he's too proud. Too brave to be carried off with a bunch of sirens and people watching." Actually, knowing Sasuke, that might have been true, too.

Karin smiled a little at that, still gazing off in the distance. The crop beat a steady rhythm on her boot. She was completely calm now, almost at ease. "Yes," she said, more to herself than to me. "Sasuke Uchiha does not seem like he's afraid of any-thing. And he does know what he wants, doesn't he?" You have no idea, I wanted to tell her. But by then, a whole crowd of 4-H officials was marching in our direction, and I turned to face them, ready to tell more lies.


	28. Blood with a hint of Love?

IT WAS DARK by the time I got home, riding Belle the back way, cutting through empty cornfields and avoiding the roads as much as possible, almost like I was afraid I was being followed. I certainly hadn't wanted to catch a ride home with any of the people who'd offered: Faith or the 4-H leaders. Especially the 4-H leaders, whose questions I'd already answered at least fifty times. They'd just keep harping on why none of the local hospitals seemed to know anything about a boy who'd been injured by a horse.

And then they'd want to talk to my parents, at which point they might just walk into our farmhouse to find Sasuke Uchiha near dead—or dead, even—on our couch, my father trying to resuscitate him with herbs and infusions.

I spurred Belle a little more quickly at the thought.

Could Sasuke really be dead? How would I feel if he was? Would I mourn him? Grieve? Guilt tugged at me. Would I be relieved on some level?

And was I worried more for Sasuke or for my parents' role in this disaster?

All of these questions roiled around in my mind like a stinking stew made from spoiled odds and ends as Belle and I picked our way home, stuck at a horse's pace when I longed for a jet. Our progress seemed ridiculously slow. Einstein had explained that feeling, hadn't he? Relativity. One's perception of time was relative to one's desire for its passage. Right?

Time. Relativity. Science.

I tried to focus on those concepts instead of pointless worrying, but my mind kept wandering back to the blood on Sasuke's shirt. The blood spurting from his mouth. The red, red blood. By the time I reached the end of our lane, I had Belle at a recklessly full gallop, and I dropped the reins, sliding from her back, as I caught sight of my parents' van parked in front of the house. There was another car, too. An unfamiliar but equally decrepit sedan. The house was mainly dark, but a few muted lights glowed from deep inside.

Abandoning poor Belle, knowing I should cool her down and put her in her stall, I stomped up the steps and ran inside. "Mom!" I hollered at the top of my lungs, slamming the door behind me. My mother emerged from the dining room, shushing me with a finger to the lips. "Saku, please. Keep your voice down."

"What happened? How is he?" I pushed past her toward the dining room, but Mom caught my arm. .

"No, Saku. . . not right now."

I searched her face. "Mom?"

"It's serious, but we have reason to believe he'll pull through. He's getting good care. The best care we could give him, safely," she added cryptically. "What do you mean 'safely'?" Safe care came from hospitals. "And whose car is out there?"

"We called Dr. Kabuto—"

"No, Mom!" Not Dr. Kabuto. The crazy Asian quack who'd lost his medical license for using controversial folk "remedies" from the old country, right here in the United States, where people had the good sense to believe in real medicine. I should have recognized the car. Long after the rest of the county had shunned him, old Kabuto and my parents had remained friends, huddling around the kitchen table and gabbing into the night about fools who didn't trust "alternative therapies." "He'll kill Sasuke!"

"Dr. Kabuto understands Lucius and his people," Mom said, taking me by the shoulders. "He can be trusted." When my mom said "trusted," I got the sense that she wasn't just talking about whether the quack should have a li-cense. "Trusted with what?"

"Discretion."

"Why? Why do we have to be discreet? Did you see the blood coming from his mouth? His smashed leg?"

"Sasuke is special," Mom said, shaking my shoulders a little, like I should have realized this fact a million years ago. "Accept it, Saku. He would not be safe in a hospital."

"And he's safe here? In our dining room?"

Mom released my shoulders and rubbed her eyes. I realized how tired she must be. "Yes, Saku. Safer."

"But he's bleeding inside. Even I can tell that. He probably needs blood."

My mom looked at me strangely, like perhaps I'd finally just grasped some important truth. "Yes, Saku. He needs blood."

"Then take him to a hospital, please!"

Mom stared at me for a long moment. "Saku, there are things about Sasuke that most doctors wouldn't understand. We can talk about this later, but right now, I need to return to him. Please, go upstairs and try to be patient. I'll tell you as soon as I have news on his progress." Turning her back on me, Mom opened the door to the dining room, and I heard soft voices come from inside the darkened room. My father's voice. Dr. Kabuto's. Mom slipped in to join their secret cabal, and the door clicked shut.

* * *

><p>Furious, scared and frustrated, I ran upstairs, forgetting poor Belle entirely. I'm ashamed to admit that she spent the whole night in the November cold, wandering around the barns and the paddock, her saddle still on her back. I was too unhinged to think about the horse that had carried me to a measure of personal glory just a few hours earlier. Instead, I climbed onto my bed and stared out the window, trying to figure out what to do.<p>

As I debated calling a real doctor myself, I caught sight of my father slipping out the door and hurrying across the yard toward the garage. The light went on in Sasuke's apartment, but only for a few moments. It snapped off again, and seconds later, Dad was back, striding across the lawn. I could see, in the moonlight, that he carried something in his hands. Something about the size of shoe box but with rounded corners. Like a paper-wrapped parcel.

I waited until Dad's footsteps passed through the house and the dining room door sneaked shut before creeping downstairs, avoiding all the squeaky spots that might give me away. I practically crawled up to the dining room door and turned the knob, opening the door just a crack. Just enough to see inside. The fire in the fireplace had nearly guttered out, and the dimmer switch on the iron chandelier had been spun to its lowest setting, but I was able to make out the scene.

Sasuke was laid out on our long plank dining table, the one we used only for big occasions. He was bare-chested, the blood-stained clothes gone—cut away, I supposed—and his lower half was covered with a white sheet. His face was completely placid. Eyes closed, mouth composed. He looked like death. Like a corpse. I'd never been to a funeral before, but if someone could look deader than Sasuke did at that moment. . . Well, I couldn't imagine how they'd manage it.

Is he dead?

I stared at his chest, willing it to raise, but if his lungs pumped, it was too weakly for me to discern in the darkened room. Please, Sasuke. Breathe.

When Sasuke's chest still didn't move, something cracked open deep inside me, and my entire body felt like a vast cave with a frozen wind surging through the empty spaces. No . . . he can't be gone. I can't let him go. I struggled to calm myself. If Sasuke was dead, they wouldn't be hovering over him, caring for him. They'd stop treating him. Cover his face. My mother paced near the fireplace, one hand over her mouth, watching as my father and Dr. Kabuto conferred in hushed tones over the package that Dad had retrieved from the garage. Some decision must have been reached, because Dr. Kabuto retrieved a knife—a scalpel?—from a black bag. Is he going to operate on Sasuke? On our table?

I almost turned away, too sickened to watch, but no, the Hungarian quack didn't slice into Sasuke. He simply cut the strings that bound the package and tore open the paper. He lifted out the contents, cradling it as if he was delivering a baby—a wobbly, slippery baby that almost escaped his grasp. What in the world? I leaned closer, pressing my face against the crack and fighting to control my breathing so I wouldn't be caught. No one was focused on the door, though. Mom, Dad, and Dr. Kabuto were all staring at that . . . thing in Dr. Kabuto's hands. It looked like . . . what? Some sort of pouch? Made of a material I couldn't identify. Something pliable, though, because the package slipped around in Dr. Kabuto's grasped, like Jell-O in a plastic bag.

"We should have realized he'd have this, hidden," Dr. Kabuto whispered, nodding so his white beard bobbed. "Of course he would."

"Yes," Mom agreed, moving forward now, toward Sasuke. "Of course. We should have known." At a nod from Dad, they both slid their forearms under Sasuke's shoulders and gently lifted him, almost to a seated position. Sasuke made a sound then, half a moan of pain, half the roar of an angry, injured lion. My damp fingers slipped off the doorknob at that sound. It wasn't quite human and not quite animal. But it was completely chilling, reverberating off the walls. I wiped my hands on my riding breeches, squinting harder at the scene in front of me. Dr. Kabuto leaned close to his patient, holding out the pouch like an offering in front of Sasuke's face. The firelight glinted off the doctor's half-moon eyeglasses, and he smiled a little as he urged, softly, "Drink, Sasuke. Drink." The patient didn't respond. Sasuke's head lolled sideways, and Dad shifted to catch him, steadying him.

Dr. Kabuto hesitated, and then grasped the scalpel again, using it to pierce the pouch, right under Sasuke's nose. The eyes that I feared had been extinguished fluttered open, and I yelped then. Sasuke's eyes, they were red and black again. Sharingan? I think is what he called it. Funny thing is, is that he doesn't have his props with him so maybe he is… a vampire… and the way he drunk that blood. He opened his mouth and his teeth . . . they'd changed again, too.

My parents must have heard my cry, but it was too late. What was happening was happening, and they, too, were trans-fixed as Sasuke tilted his head, sinking his fangs into that pouch, drinking wearily but with obvious hunger. A bit of liquid dribbled down his chin and ran across his chest. Dark liquid. Thick liquid. I'd seen liquid just like that before, not too many hours ago, staining that same chest.

NO.

I closed my eyes, disbelieving. Shaking my head, I tried to think straight. To banish the image of what I thought I'd seen. What I was fairly sure I'd seen.

There was a smell, too. A pungent odor that I'd never smelled before. Well, I'd smelled it faintly before, but now . . . now it was so strong. And getting stronger. I opened my eyes and forced myself to watch again. That aroma—it wasn't like I was even sensing it with my nose. I felt it, somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach, or in the farthest reaches of that primitive part of the brain that we'd talked about in biology class. The part that controlled sex and aggression and . . . pleasure?

Sasuke pulled himself more upright, supporting himself on one elbow, still drinking lustily, like he couldn't get enough. Finally, though, there was nothing left. The bag was empty. Sasuke sort of fell back with a moan that managed, somehow, to convey both raw agony and pure satisfaction, and Dad grabbed his bare shoulders just in time, easing him onto his back again. "Rest, Sasuke," Dad urged. Mom stepped in with a cloth to wipe his chest, where the blood had spilled on him. . . . Blood. He was drinking blood.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, more tightly this time. Something strange happened then, because I was obviously crouched on a solid, wooden floor, which could not move, and yet it started pitching and whirling under my feet. The whole house was heaving around me, and even when I opened my eyes, trying to get my bearings, it was only to feel my eyes spin of their own accord toward the ceiling, which faded away like a movie screen at the end of the film.

* * *

><p>I awoke later that same night in my own bed; dressed in my flannel pajamas, but confused and disoriented, as if I'd suddenly found myself in a foreign country, as opposed to my own bedroom. It was still dark. I lay as still as possible, eyes open, just in case the room started lurching and the ceiling started to fade again.<p>

The house didn't shift, though, even as I replayed, in vivid detail, everything I'd seen. Everything I'd felt. I'd seen Sasuke drink blood. Or had I? I had been woozy. Confused. And that smell. . . Maybe Dr. Kabuto had dosed Sasuke with some sort of heady Romanian liquor or potion or something. Maybe I'd misunderstood, in my panic and my fear. But the one thing I couldn't explain away was what I'd felt when I'd actually believed Sasuke was dead. Grief. The deepest grief I could imagine. Like a jagged hole ripped in my soul.

That. . . that was the part that really had me freaked. So freaked, in fact that I slipped downstairs again in the middle of the night, creeping into the dining room. The fire had been stoked back up, and Sasuke was still on his back on the table, but there was a pillow under his head now. A warmer blanket had been placed over the sheet, too, covering him from shoulders to toes. Nobody else was in the room with me.

I stole up close to Sasuke's face. There were no traces of red on his lips, no stain down his chin, no hint of a change in his mouth. Just a pale, injured, now-familiar face. As I watched him, he must have sensed a presence, or maybe he dreamed, because he shifted slightly, and his hand dropped off the table. The position looked uncomfortable, so after waiting a moment to see if he would move again, I gently grasped his wrist and re-placed it on the table. In spite of the blanket and the fire crack-ling just a few feet away, his skin was so cool to the touch . . . cold, actually. He was always so cold. My fingers slipped down, lacing with Sasuke's for just a moment, to offer him some com-fort or warmth.

He was alive.

I started weeping then, as soundlessly as possible. I just let the tears run down my face, dripping onto our clasped hands. Sasuke drove me insane. He was insane. But no matter. I didn't want to feel that sense of profound loss again. Never. I hiccupped a sob, unable to hold it back. At the sound, "You better better wake Uchiha, remember if you want that date with me you have to wake up." I whispered in his ear with the tears still falling down my falling down my face. Before getting up wiping my face and going back to my room I whispered one more thing in his ear with a blush on my face.

"I think I'm falling for you Uchiha."


	29. 5th Letter

DEAR UNCLE MADARA,

It is with profound regret— and no small measure of apprehension regarding your reaction— that I write to inform you that I have encountered a small accident with a horse I purchased "online." Oh, how you would have appreciated Hell's Belle. Such a terrible, awesome, feral creature. Black from her forelock to her hooves and, needless to say, the very core of her being. Would I have desired anything less?

Returning to the narrative, though. My deliciously vicious mare dealt me an admirable thrashing — for which I absolve her completely. The result was a broken leg, a few cracked ribs, and bit of a gaping hole in one lung. Nothing I haven't survived before at the hands of family. But of course, I'm afraid I shall be on my back for at least a week or so.

I write less in hopes of gaining your sympathy . . . (Oh, that's a rich thought, isn't it? You, Madara, getting weepy over someone's well-being. I really would laugh out loud at that, if doing so wouldn't make me cough up more blood.) No, I put pen to paper more in the interest of giving the Harus their just due, as I have certainly never been spare with them in terms of criticism. (Recall my missive following that first lentil casserole? I cringe a bit, to recall. There's never really a need to resort to expletives.)

In this crisis, however, much to their credit, Saku parents rose to the occasion, immediately grasping the fact that taking an undead individual to the hospital would have been a decidedly unfortunate move. (How many of our modern brethren have been inconveniently lodged in basement morgues for days— and even stone mausoleums for years— due to a lack of what humans call "vital signs"?)

But as usual, my musings wander. Returning to my point, perhaps we have been unjustly harsh regarding the Harus. They showed great insight, and, more importantly, risked themselves for me. I almost wish that I could replace their hideous folk dolls, as a gesture of my gratitude. Could you, perhaps, have one of the local women fashion some crude poppet out of, say, a wooden spoon and some scraps of wool? Nothing fancy. Aesthetic standards for this particular collection were not high, believe me. "Ugly" and "ill-crafted" seem to have been the key criteria.

As for Sakura . . . Madara, what can I say? She responded to my accident with the valor, will, and fearlessness of a true vampire princess. And yet, a princess possessed of a kind heart. What, we must ask ourselves, would this mean for her in our world?

Madara, few are the times when I would claim to have greater experience than you, regarding any subject.

You know that I am humbled before your authority. But I will risk addressing you with some authority here, myself, as one who has spent considerable time now in intimate contact with humans.

(No doubt you already grow angry at my impertinence— believe me, I can feel the sting of your hand across my face, even several thousand miles away — but I must continue.) Living as you have in our castle, isolated high in the Carpathians, you have had little contact with those outside our race. You know only the vampire way— the Uchiha way. The way of blood and violence and the harsh scrabble for survival. The end-less fight for dominance.

You have never seen Sakura mom crouched above a box full of squirming kittens, nourishing them with an eyedropper, for god's sake— when our people would have thrown the shivering strays out into the cold, watched them carried off by the circling birds of prey, with no regret. Nay, with a sense of satisfaction for the hawk that would not go hungry that night.

You have never felt Sakura mom trembling hand searching for your pulse as you lay prostrate— vulnerable! — half naked, injured, on a plank table.,

What would one of our kind have done, Madara? If her mom had been a Haruno, not a Haru would she not have been tempted, at least, to take down the rival prince in that opportune moment? Yet she feared for my life.

This— this is how Sakura was raised. She is not just an American, but a Haru. Not a Haruno. She has been coddled with kittens and kindness and soft touches. Nourished with pale, limp "tofu" in lieu of the blood-soaked spoils of a slaughter.

And you didn't hear her cry, Madara. You didn't feel her grief, as I did, when she thought I was destroyed. . . . It was palpable to me, Madara. It tore through her.

Sakura— no, Saku— is soft, Madara. Soft. Her heart is so tender that she could not help but mourn even me— a man whom she can barely abide. Her enemies— and we know, as a princess, she would have them, even in peacetime— would smell that weakness, just as I sensed her grief. At some point, another female would rise up, thirsty for power, hungry to take Saku's place. Is that not the way of our world? And when confronted, at the moment of truth, Jessica would falter, just for a split second, not sure if she could bear to waste a life— and she would be lost. Even I could not protect her at all times.

In the past, I fear that I have considered Saku superficially. I (we?) have been guilty of believing that a change of clothes, lessons on etiquette, a deep and satisfying thrust of fangs to the throat could make her vampire royalty.

But you didn't hear her cry, Madara You didn't feel her tears fall on your face, your hand.

Perhaps vampiredom could survive Sakura— but could Sakura survive vampiredom? She shows promise, Madara, but that promise is years from maturation. In the meantime, she would be doomed.

Maybe it is the medication speaking. Honestly, Madara, the Haru's have the most wonderful Hungarian healer, very loose with dispensation, if you get my meaning. Yes, perhaps it is the plethora of potions coursing through my veins and saturating my brain, but I ponder these things as I lie here— missing, I might add, the first basketball "scrimmage" of the season, against the rival "Palmyra Cougars." (As if I haven't slain those before, and would have done so again on the court.) Getting back to Saku, though. We vampires are soulless, yes. But we do not betray our own, do we?

We do not destroy wantonly, correct? And I fear that vampiredom would, indeed, destroy Saku.

Should we not consider setting her free to be a normal, human teenager? And leave the problems of our world where they belong: in our world, as opposed to on the shoulders of an innocent American girl who longs only to ride her horse, giggle with her best friend (I've developed a somewhat twisted liking for the deliriously sex-crazed Ino), and share "nice" kisses with a simple farmer?

I look forward to your thoughts, even as I already anticipate your phenomenally negative response. But you raised me to be not just ruthless but honorable, Madara, and I felt honor bound to bring these issues to light.

By the way you'll be happy to know she thinks she loves me now. She whispered it to me when she thought I was asleep.

Yours, recovering,

Sasuke

P.S. Regarding the doll: Request button eyes if possible. That seemed to be a "theme."


	30. Mom and Daughter talk

"MOM, I WANT you to tell me what happened that night."

My mother was in her home office, glasses perched on her nose, poring over her latest delivery of academic journals by the pale glow of her desk lamp. At the sound of my voice, she glanced up. "I was hoping you'd come to talk soon, Jess."

She motioned to the lumpy, cast-off La-Z-Boy that served as a guest chair next to her desk. I sank in, pulling the musty Peruvian wool blanket over my legs. Mom spun her chair toward me, sliding her glasses up into her hair, giving me her full attention. "Where should we start? With what happened between you and Sasuke on the porch?"

I flushed, looking away. "No. I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about two nights ago. When you brought Lucius here. Why? Why not to a hospital?"

"I told you, Saku. Sasuke is special. He's different."

"Different how?"

"Sasuke is a vampire, Saku. A doctor trained in an American medical school would not understand how to treat him."

"He's just a guy, Mom," I insisted. "Is he? Is that what you still believe? Even after what you saw, crouched by the door?" Staring down at my hands, I twisted a loose thread around my finger and tore it out of the blanket. "It's so confusing, Mom."

"Saku?"

"Hmm?" I glanced up.

"You've touched Sasuke, too."

"Mom, please ..." We weren't going there again, were we? Mom gave me a level stare. "Your father and I aren't blind. Your father caught the tail end of your . . . moment. . . with Sasuke on Halloween night." I was glad the desk lamp barely cast a puddle of light on the desk, because my cheeks were blazing. "It was just a kiss. Not even that, really."

"And when you touch Sasuke, you don't notice anything . . . unusual?"

His coolness. I knew immediately what she meant, but for some reason, I hedged. "I don't know. Maybe."

Mom realized I wasn't being completely honest, and she had little patience with people who got intellectually lazy when faced with a difficult concept. She pulled her glasses back onto her nose. I knew I was being dismissed. "I want you think about what you saw back in the dining room. What you've felt.

What you believe."

"I want to believe what is real" I whined. "I want to understand the truth. Remember the Enlightenment? Geometric order replacing superstition? Sir Isaac Newton? Who unlocked the 'mystery' of gravity? And who once said, 'My greatest friend is truth.' How can a vampire be 'true'?"

My mom stared at me for a long moment. I could hear the clock on her desk ticking as she marshaled her considerable store of knowledge.

"Isaac Newton," Mom finally said, "retained a lifelong faith in astrology. Did you know that about your so called rational scientist?"

"Um, no," I admitted. "I did not know that."

"And remember Albert Einstein?" Mom noted, smugly. "Who unlocked the atom? Something we could barely conceive of just a century or so ago? Einstein once said, 'The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.'" She paused. "If atoms can exist, hidden and yet everywhere, for millennia . . . why not a vampire?"

was good.

"Mom . . ."

"Yes, Saku?"

"I saw Sasuke drink blood. And I saw his teeth. Again."

Mom took my hand and squeezed it. "Welcome to the world of the mysterious, Saku." A shadow crossed her face. "Please be careful there. It's very, very tricky territory. Completely untamed. The mysterious can be beautiful—and dangerous."

I knew what she meant. Sasuke. "I'll be careful, Mom."

"The Uchiha family has a certain reputation for ruthless-ness," she added, more directly. "You know your father and I like Sasuke very much, and he is charming, but we must also keep in mind that his upbringing was no doubt very different from yours. And not just in terms of material possessions."

"I know, Mom. He's told me a little bit. Besides, I keep telling you—I don't feel like that about him."

Liar.

"Well, just so you know, I'm always here to talk. So is your father."

"Thanks, Mom." I tossed aside the blanket and stood to go, kissing her cheek. "For now, I just need to think."

"Of course." Mom spun back around to her journals. "I love you, Saku" she added over her shoulder as I pulled her door shut. In spite of her warnings, in spite of her obvious concerns for me, I swore I heard the faintest hint of a smile in her voice.

Before I could walk out the door she said one more thing that made me realize a lot of things. "Saku also keep in mind Sasuke has feelings to. How do you think he feels about coming to a whole new country trying to learn our customs. And how do you think it makes him feel every time you insult his kind?


	31. Do you believe now?

"WELL, YOU'RE FINALLY out of the garage like you wanted," I teased.

"I can't believe you live like this," Sasuke smirked, propped against my pink satin pillows. In my bedroom. Mom had insisted Sasuke move inside until his leg healed. His cast was propped up on the oversized stuffed hot dog. "It's like living in a frothy cocoon of cotton candy." He made a face. "So much pink."

"I like pink."

Sasuke sniffed. "It's just red's sorry, weak cousin."

I pouted at him. "Good to know you find me weak." I said motioning at my pink hair. "Saku you know what I mean, and besides i ... Like your hair it' .

"Well, it's not forever. You'll be back in your gloomy dungeon with your rusty weapons before long." I glanced around my room. "Have you seen my iPod?"

"This?" Sasuke located my iPod in a jumble of sheets and held it up.

"Yes." I held out my hand. "Give."

"Oh, can't I keep it? It's so boring being confined here, and I'm enjoying exploring your musical preferences."

Here we go. "Why don't you buy your own?"

"But yours is already loaded with Nicki Minaj and Beyonce." He was mocking me.

"Don't be a jerk."

"I like them. Honestly." A devilish grin crossed his face. "I woke up like this! I woke up like this! What's not to like?" I swiped the iPod from his hands and he laughed. I grinned, too. "If you weren't already broken all to pieces . . ."

"What?" He grabbed my wrist with lightning speed for someone with broken ribs. "You'd beat me into submission? Right. In your dreams."

Yes.

Sometimes, lately. In my dreams. I mean, I wasn't dreaming about beating him up. But lately, Sasuke had been making more guest appearances in my sleep. At weddings. In dark caves. By flickering caqndlelight. He released me, growing serious. "Saku, I've consumed so many pain medications. I really can't thank your local physi-cian, Dr. Zsoldos, enough. Why suffer?"

"You're rambling."

"Oh, yes. Well, I've never properly thanked you." He pushed himself up a little straighter, wincing as his ribs shifted. "Catching Hell's Belle, staying with me. You were very brave."

I shifted my weight, trying not to jostle his leg. "I'm sorry they put her down."

Sasuke looked out the window, mouth drawn down. "You did your best. But some things are just too dangerous to live, I suppose."

"You tried to tame her," I added lamely. "It worked for a while."

"It wasn't in her nature to be tamed. In the end, we are all true to our natures. Our upbringings."

We sat in silence for a second, and I wondered what Sasuke was thinking about. The horse—or himself?

"Congratulations on second place," he finally said.

I followed his gaze to the corkboard on my wall, where I'd hung my red ribbon next to a bunch of blue ones I'd won for math competitions. Of course, Karin had won the blue ribbon. My performance had been good, but not good enough. "You deserved the blue," I told Sasuke meaning it.

"How odd that I received a 'lifetime ban' from 4-H, then," he noted wryly. "They created a whole new rule, you know. Just for me. 'Prohibition against knowingly bringing a vicious animal to a public event.' I was the first violator, retroactively. A pioneer in lawlessness, so to speak." He laughed, coughed sharply, and clutched his ribs. "Damn."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I just slay myself, at times." He smiled. "Literally."

I fidgeted with my iPod. "Sasuke."

"Yes, Saku?"

I met his black eyes. "I was there. That night."

"I know."

"You do?"

"You came to me late at night. Took my hand."

I resumed my study of my iPod, embarrassed. "Oh ... I thought you were asleep."

"Don't fidget while conversing." Sasuke plucked the iPod from my fingers. "Of course I knew you were there. I'm a light sleeper. Especially when every inch of my body is wracked with pain."

"Sorry." I smiled weakly. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"No ... on the contrary, I was quite touched," Sasuke said. His eyes softened, all of the imperiousness fading away. "You wept for my distress. No one has ever wept to see me suffer before. I shall not forget that kindness, Saku."

"It was just how I felt then. I couldn't help crying."

"No, of course not." The admission seemed to pain him, somehow. "Still, when I return to my life in Romania, no one will cry to see Sasuke Uchiha broken. And when I suffer—as is inevitable—I shall remember your gesture with fondness and appreciation."

"I won't forget that night, either," I promised. I wiped my palms on my legs. They'd grown sweaty.

"Sasuke ... I saw you drink the blood."

"Ahh, the blood." He didn't seem surprised by my confession. "I hope you were not unduly upset. Not too disgusted. I hadn't judged you ready to see that. It can be rather off-putting for those not used to it."

"I sort of passed out."

Sasuke smiled sadly and stared out the window. "Even insensate on a table, I manage to sicken you. Quite a talent I have."

"No. It wasn't just seeing the blood. I ... I smelled it, too."

Sasuke turned his head slowly to look at me, as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd heard. There was a small spark in his eyes. "You did?"

"Yes."

"And what, exactly, did it smell like?"

"It was strong. Almost overpowering."

"Yes. So it is. So it becomes."

"That's what you keep in that Orange Julius cup, isn't it?"

Sasuke smiled wryly. "Did I really seem like a man who would drink strawberry froth from a kiosk at the mall? Have I not expressed my feelings toward pink things?"

"Yeah. I guess I should have known." A question had been burning in my mind. A question I wasn't sure I wanted answered. But I had to ask. "Sasuke, where do you get it?" Visions from old movies, of terrified women in gauzy nightgowns cowering before fanged attackers, loomed in my mind. "Is it. . . violent?"

"Oh, Saku . . . vampires have ways. It is not as rapacious now as it was in the past. Much is maintained in collections, like wine. One need not always stomp a grape to drink champagne, you know."

Moving carefully to protect his ribs, Sasuke laced his fingers behind his head, sinking into the pillow, gazing at the ceiling. His deep voice grew wistful. "Our cellar in Romania ... it is the best in the world, some say. Vintages dating back to the 1700s. One can just summon a servant with a snap of the fingers, name one's poison—to use one of my favorite colloquialisms—and indulge."

Half disgusted and more than a little bit unsettlingly thrilled, I let him talk on, watching him fall deeper into a reverie.

"And then, of course, when two vampires marry—unite for eternity—they have each other. That is said to be the finest vintage. The purest source." Sasuke grew even more introspective, more distant. "Male to female. Woman to man. Blood comingled. Could there be a stronger bond between two beings?"

A smile flitted across his lips. "Intercourse is a fleeting plea-sure, indeed. Undeniably an intimate act. Not to be dis-missed—or missed, for that matter. Indeed, crucial for procreation, beyond its other obvious virtues."

The smile faded. "But sharing one's blood with another: ex-posing one's most vulnerable place, where the pulse beats just below the skin, and trusting your partner to satisfy without subduing ... It makes sex seem almost insignificant by comparison. An unequal act—male to female. But blood . . . blood can be shared as true equals."

He seemed to have forgotten me perched by his side. I listened to him, mesmerized. Mesmerized and . . . more.

Or maybe Sasuke hadn't forgotten my presence. His gaze flicked to me. "But of course you think I am delusional, that I ramble about impossibilities, irrational acts. And you are right: The existence of a vampire is irrational. We are a study in impossibilities."

Vintage blood. Fangs piercing pulse points. It did still sound crazy. But not impossible anymore. Or even undesirable, the way Sasuke described it. No, not in the least. "Sasuke, I saw you drink the blood. It's not impossible."

He looked at me as if trying to see if I was mocking him. "Well I guess this will make it easier to ask you but when do you want that date?" I was confused for a moment before I realized he was talking about my promise. "Well it is a Saturday so how about today?"

He nodded his head as if thinking. "You know you're the first person I've actually been nice to." I gave him a confused stare. "Will talk about it over dinner. I know it take women forever to get ready so you call your friend over or whatever while I heal my body."

With that he walked out the room leaving me no space to talk.


	32. Our date Part 1

Ino came over to help me get ready for my date. I wore a turquoise colored dressed with black lining, and black 3inch heels. She curled my long pink locks. I didn't wear any makeup because according to her I looked naturally beautiful.

Me and Ino were talking while waiting on the couch for Sasuke. He wanted to self heal his body before the date so it could be fully perfect. I was starting to feel nervous, from past experiences I just didn't want to get hurt again. The only guys I trusted after what happened to me were Naruto and my father. Wait, how would Naruto feel about me going on this date?

I mean I still like Naruto although I'm developing feeling for Sasuke. Does this make me a hoe? Before I could contemplate on that thought Sasuke walked in the room wearing cargo shorts, a blue polo shirt, and tan Sperry's. He looked normal and un injured. He stared me up and down making me blush. "Well you both look good I guess I can leave now." Ino said picking up her purse and car keys, but before she left she walked over to Sasuke and motioned her finger to make him come down to her height. He raised an eyebrow but complied. She whispered something in his ear and he nodded his head in understanding.

After a couple seconds she pulled away and he gave her a reassuring smile. "You have my word ."

"I'm holding that to you Uchiha." She gave him a warning look before turning to me and look me up and down checking for a mistake before pulling me into a hug. "Have fun you're in safe hands tonight. Also you look good." I raised an eyebrow at her but she just winked and walked out leaving just me and Sasuke.

"You look beautiful tonight." Sasuke said as we walked out the door. " I rented a car since your parents took the van." I looked at the car he got an BMW, glad he has a considerate taste.

* * *

><p>As expected, the theater on a Saturday night was a madhouse, packed wall-to-wall with laughing, kissing, screaming teenagers. Sasuke let me pick everyplace I wanted to go to saying that he would pay. So I decided I wanted to see a movie first. "Now that I've twisted your arm and dragged you here, is there anything you want to see? Action, horror, romantic comedy?"<p>

"This is your occasion," Sasuke said, "Whatever you want is fine." I blushed pass guys I've dated wouldn't be so gentle with me. A little distracted now, I looked back at the movies playing. I wasn't in the mood for horror or drama, though Sasuke would probably enjoy an action flick, with fighting and blood and chase scenes.

Screw it, he said it's my choice, and this will probably be the last movie I'll see for a while. Romantic comedy it is. He stood patiently with me in the line to get tickets, then popcorn, and finally in the long line to the theater doors. As we waited in the kernel-strewn corridor, I snuck a glance at him, standing in line for the movies, holding a large tub of extra butter popcorn. I couldn't help but giggle at the image.

He blinked at me. "You've been doing that a lot. Why am I so amusing?"

"It's just..." I gestured at him helplessly. "You look so normal. That's all." He shrugged his shoulders and escorted me.

Sadly, with the amount of people in the theater, all the back row seats were taken by the time we reached the aisles, so we had to take seats front and center. But I snuggled into my seat and munched popcorn and watched the movie, which was cute and sappy and very much a Valentine's Day flick. Sasuke didn't say much throughout the film, except to ask me what a vibrator was, which made me very glad it was dark. Awkward questions aside, he seemed to enjoy it, or at least he didn't fall asleep in the middle, like the snoring man several aisles behind us.

"So?" I asked when the movie was over and we'd filed onto the sidewalk again, hand-in-hand. "What did you think? Was your first movie experience everything you hoped it would be and more?"

"It was...interesting," Sasuke replied as we began walking. "I think the one human male should have challenged the other to a duel when he attempted to steal his girl, but that's just what I would've done. It's a shame dueling has fallen out of favor in the human world." He frowned slightly as I sighed and gazed wistfully down the street. "Saku? Are you all right?"

* * *

><p>The restaurant I'd chosen wasn't elaborately fancy, though it did boast an impressive foyer, already filled wall to wall with people. Sasuke gazed around curiously, and more than a few admiring stares were leveled his way. A well-dressed hostess took our names, showed us to our seats, and wished us a pleasant meal. Her gaze lingered on Sasuke even as she walked away. If Sasuke noticed, he didn't say anything.<p>

"Hold on," he said, stopping me as I reached for my chair. "This ritual requires that I court you, does it not? Allow me." Reaching around, he pulled out the seat for me, and my stomach fluttered at that simple, courteous gesture. I was awed Sasuke was always a gentleman.

"Look at you," I said, smiling as Sasuke took the seat across from mine. Our table was small, and positioned intimately in a corner, away from the crowd. A single candle between us cast his features in a hazy glow. "For someone who claims not to know much about human customs, you're certainly fitting in well."

Sasuke snorted quietly. "I've been around awhile, Saku. I've picked up a few things over the years. Observe." He plucked the menu from the table and opened it, scanning it gravely. "So, what's good here?"

I giggled into my napkin.

The food was excellent, as was the wine [which I had no idea how Sasuke managed to get us some], and the live band playing in the far corner as the evening wore on. The only slightly annoying thing was our waitress, who kept returning to our table far more often than necessary to check on us and refill Sasuke 's drink. For his part, Sasuke was a perfect dinner companion; polite, charming, attentive. He was taking this seriously. I even got him to split a slice of triple fudge cheesecake with me for dessert, though I noticed he took very small bites and let me have the parts covered in chocolate sauce.

"So are you enjoying yourself?" Sasuke asked me staring me in the eyes. I nodded my head keeping our eyes locked. "So how come you hardly trust guys?" I was shocked for a moment and then I dropped my gaze. I shrugged my shoulders. "Let's not talk here."


	33. Our date Part 2

The late November breeze was getting the best of me as I started to shiver and get goose bumps. Me and Sasuke walked to his car he grabbed a North Face jacket. I raised an eyebrow at him. "I figured you would get colder so I brought my jacket just in case." I nodded my head as we got back on the side walk deciding to walk to the park.

About 10 minutes later, after walking in silence we stopped at a swing set. I sat on a seat swinging myself softly. "So what do you want to know?" I asked softly. "Whatever you're willing to tell me about your past, so I never offend you or hurt your feelings in the future." My heart stop he is being to nice to me. Is this the man I might marry? _Calm down Saku he could be trying to play the nice guy just to get in my pants later._

My breath started to shake as I started to remember my past. "Well I dated this guy name Deidara. We dated for two years, he was loving, caring, such a gentleman until one day we went to this party one day." I took a look at Sasuke all of my pain was resurfacing. "Deidara became very drunk that night, I got angry at him and went to Ino's room he followed me and closed the door behind us. We started arguing somehow we ended up making out. He tried…

_That Night_

"_Why did you have to get drunk god I fuckin hate it when you're like!"_

"_Calm down babe. You only live once." He pulled me into a hug; I tried pushing him away the smell of alcohol feeling up my nostril. He kissed my neck. "Saku I promise this is my last time getting like this." He looked me in the eye. "You promise?" he kissed my neck again. "Promise_ ." _he put his hands under my_ _shirt. I_ _tried pushing him away again. "Deidara I forgive you but please stop I'm not ready yet." He grabbed my hair putting a tight grip on my hair leaning into my ear. "You're a fucking little ease and will get what's coming for you." He grabbed both of my wrists putting them both above my head. The tears continued to run down my face. _

_He ripped my shirt open and began to…"_

I stopped mid-story realizing my eyes were starting to water I wiped my tears before they could fall not trying to look weak in front of Sasuke.

"Did you get rape?" He asked now standing in front of me. I nodded my head no. "A guy I dated saved me he heard me scream and came to make sure everything was ok." Sasuke nodded his head. "What happen to the guy you dated?"

I took a shaky breath not wanting to relive that moment but somehow it felt right telling these things to Sasuke so I continued on.

"He was sweet to me at first but as time grew older he started to change. For example he would always call me annoying and making stupid jokes which I later found out he was being serious trying to sleep with Ino and stuff like that, but that's not what ended our relationship. One day I was talking to him about giving him my virginity and out of no where he said if I ever get really drunk and I see a really sexy woman I'm going to fuck her." I took another shaky breath trying to stay calm. "I became very insecure not thinking I was pretty anymore and worthy enough to be with a guy and that I'm nothing but a fuck toy to guys." I started crying. Fuck being prideful around Sasuke I've been holding in this pain for years.

To my surprise, the cold stoic Sasuke hugged me.


	34. Operation Love Triangle

My body would've frozen if hadn't been crying. So instead I allowed him to pick me up bridal style and carry me to the bench. Once he was settled onto the bench I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him while he wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me closer almost in a protective manner.

"Sakura." he whispered in my ear his usual strong demanding was now soft and gentle. He sighed before speaking. "Look I'm not that kind of guy, I come from a very crude, hard, non-emotional clan. But when it comes to women I'm gentle. I'll never hurt you Sakura mentally or physically, If you ever need to cry I'll be there for you okay?" He said trying to find words to comfort me.

He gently grabbed my chin to make me look up at him. He wiped my tears away. "Your beautiful nothing will ever change that no matter what any other guy says to you, at least know that whenever I look at you I see nothing but beauty .I wish you would just believe me when I say that, but it looks like I'm going to have to show you one day." He kissed me on the forehead and continued to let hold me. Crying makes me sleepy so it wasn't any surprise when I could feel myself drifting off to sleep.

When I awoke it was 8am and I was fully clothed still wearing my dress from yesterday with my heels sitting next to my dresser. II sat up rubbing my head remembering yesterday's events. I smiled remembering how nice the date was until we got to the park and then I remembered crying, and Sasuke calling me beautiful causing me to blush. I wonder where the vampire is now?

I shrugged and got up to take a shower, and fix myself up.

* * *

><p>Sasuke pov:<p>

I was doing pushups while formulating a plan to get Sakura to fall in love, even if she believed in vampires it didn't mean she was in love me. I thought about last night the promise I made her _I'll never hurt you Sakura mentally or physically_ I could make Sakura fall in love with by being romantic in such, but Madara wanted me to also bring out her vampire physical traits such as her fangs so she can fully believe she was a vampire. There only three ways to do that: bite her, [that would not turn out good] arouse her [although fun, still not fair to her]. Or make her jealous. Jealousy always leads to anger and anger can make your fangs come out. And making her jealous or angry seems to be the only option right now.

By making her jealous I might hurt her, I can tell she has feelings for me but not quite love she getting there though. I can make her jealous by flirting with Karin but not only will that make her jealous, but she would feel insecure thinking Karin is my type of girl, but it would make her angry and her fangs will grow. Not going to lie Karin is hot the type of girl I would hit it and quit it with or use to release my stress with, but to choose her over Sakura never.

Sakura has natural beauty with or without makeup she noticeable. Her emerald green eyes and pink her is so unusual but so beautiful. Karin is a music video type of girl but Sakura you find her a top high fashion vogue type of stuff.

I sighed to myself, since when did I care so much? "_Stop lying to yourself Sasuke you're developing feelings for her to." _My inner told me. That's true when I first came here it was to convince Sakura she was a vampire and make her fall in love. I thought my looks would have made her agree to marriage but I was wrong, I definitely wasn't expecting to develop feelings for her either.

Well you know what they say, nothing ever goes as plan. _"I'm sorry Sakura I hate to have to do this."_

* * *

><p>Sakura pov:<p>

Me and Sasuke were walking to our English class when all of a sudden somebody approach Sasuke. "Hi Sasuke-kun!" Karin was standing in front of us holding a wrapped present for him. "Hey" Sasuke replied with a raised eyebrow. "I got you this present in apology for getting your horsed all roused up." She handed the present to him and he nodded his head in thanks. "So you should eat lunch with me today, I'll like to get to know you better." I awed her bravery I would have never been able to do that without blushing. "Sure. I'll like that." he said. "Okay see you later Sasuke-kun!" she said with a wink and walking away.

I feel a tiny ting in my heart and looked at Sasuke. _Is this jealousy? Naw it can't be and even if it was Sasuke can do what he wants, it's not like were dating._ At that thought I blushed, Sasuke looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Our you okay? I looked away quickly mumbling a I'm fine and we continued heading to class.

* * *

><p>"So how was the date?" Ino asked immediately as we sat down. I sighed telling her everything from the movie, to the dinner, and how we walked around the park, also him letting me borrow his jacket. I didn't mention him comforting me or me crying. "So Sasuke can be a gentleman." She said nodding her head in approval, we both glanced over to where Sasuke and Karin were talking. "Why is he eating with her?"<p>

"She asked him to sit her today." I answered after sighing to myself. All of sudden Sasuke grabbed her hand and led her outside of the cafeteria. I looked at Ino who looked at me back and gave a devilish grin. "Let's stalk them." I rolled my eyes as we threw away our trays and followed them out of the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>Sasuke pov:<p>

Me and Karin were sitting together at lunch, the only reason I accepted this offer was to get my plan in motion in making Sakura jealous. The redhead girl was currently talking about how the basketball team is going to do good this year since I'm on the team. Out of my peripheral vision I could see Sakura and Ino looking over. I sighed in my head. _Best time to do is now while she's looking. _ I took Karin hand telling her to come with me. I glanced out my peripheral vision to see Ino and Sakura getting up throwing away there trays.

Me and Karin were inside of the school green room Sakura and Ino were peeking from behind the door. "Sasuke-kun why did you bring me here?" Karin asked sniffing a flower. I picked up a rose and put it in her hair. "I thought this was the perfect place to ask you something." She raised her eyebrow at me. "I picked her up grabbing her waist she wrapped her arms around me and I placed my arms under her butt. I kissed her immediately sticking my tongue in her mouth she moaned, I pinched her butt and I put her against the wall. I heard a gasp from Sakura. I felt extremely bad but I had to go through with this. I roamed my hands under her shirt groping her breast. She let out of the kiss and moaned louder I lifted her shirt up, pulling her bra down kissing her breast, she gripped my hair. While I sucked on her breast one hand went under her skirt massaging her clit through her panties. She moaned pulling my hair harder. I heard Ino and Sakura exit quietly. I felt truly bad knowing that Sakura would be hurt but at least my plan might be in motion. I released her nipple from my mouth and looked into her eyes still rubbing her.

"You have a boyfriend so obviously I'm not asking you out, this is just for fun." She nodded her head looking slightly hurt but mostly understanding. "I'll still hang out with you in public but every now in then I need a quick fuck." I said rubbing her harder, her eyes glazed over. I smirked and released her and sat her on the ground. I winked at her before walking away. "I can take of that later for you, you know where I'm staying." I said walking out.

* * *

><p>Sakura Pov:<p>

Me and Ino were in the stair well. I was sitting down with my knees pulled up to my chest. Ino had her arm wrapped around me. As I cried, the eventual went away. Ino looked at me. "Sakura why are you crying?"

That question took me by complete shock. Ino notice my look of shock and rolled her eyes. "If you don't love Sasuke then why are you hurt? You can't be feeling hurt and betrayed right now, in least you have developed feelings for Sasuke. Have you developed feelings for him?" I was taken back again by that question.

'Do I have feelings for Sasuke?"

It would only make since if I did. They jealousy, the heartbreak I'm feeling now and the kiss how t feel so magical. Could I really be in love with him?

"Sakura are you in love with Sasuke?" Ino asked this time smiling as she realizes that I am in love. I blushed. "Sakura! You are!" she said squealing and hugging me. I nodded my head in denial. "What about Naruto?" Ino shrugged her shoulders. "We can't chose who we love it just happens. When the time comes you'll know who you truly have feelings for. Although I know that you're more attracted to Sasuke, it's your choice." I nodded my head understanding what she meant.

I couldn't get the image of Sasuke and Karin out of my head, and shook my head trying to forget. "You know Sakura you can make Sasuke jealous by being with Naruto. So not only will you make Sasuke attracted to you but you can see who you like more him or Sasuke." I blushed agreeing with her plan.

"Operation Love Triangle." She said gleefully.


	35. Cooking

"Saku, is that you Sasuke asked. I heard the door to the garage apartment close, followed by the sound of snow being stomped off feet.

"Hey." I peeked out from the kitchenette. "You're here early."

"And you're here ... at all." He tossed his coat on the leather chair. "I thought we had permanently resumed our traditional residences."

"We did." I popped back into the kitchenette, stirring a boiling pot. Crap. I'd hoped to be further along with dinner by the time he got back from school. "Why are you home already?"

"Basketball practice was preempted by the snow. In the Carpathians, we would call this the equivalent of 'a dusting.' A 'minor inconvenience.' Here, it seems to be cause for panic in the streets. Looting and rioting for the last loaf of 'Wonder Bread' at the grocery store, as though you couldn't get a pizza delivered if on the brink of starvation." Sasuke sniffed the air. "I repeat: Why are you here? And what is that smell?"

"I knew you were tired of vegan casseroles, so I made you a rabbit," I said. "I saw them in your freezer when I was living out here." Ino came up with this great idea that I make Sasuke a dinner. I'm a very good cook but when it comes to Romania Dishes….I suck.

He caught up short for a second. "You did what?"

"I cooked a rabbit."

"Actually, it's referred to as 'hare,'" Sasuke corrected, joining me in the kitchenette. "And if you don't know what to properly call it, how did you know what to do with it?"

"I found this cookbook on your shelves." I held out the battered, stained reference. "See?"

Sasuke frowned, reading. " Cooking the Romanian Way. In English! I'd forgotten I brought this." He glanced at me and smiled wryly. "Our cook sent this for your parents, anticipating that they would adjust their menus to meet my tastes— certainly never expecting that I'd find myself in the home of vegans who would never deign to accommodate even a royal Romanian's passion for flesh."

"Well, there's plenty of 'flesh on the menu tonight," I promised. "I'm making the sour lamb soup, too." I took the book from him, opened it, and jabbed my finger at the page I'd marked. "This recipe."

Sasuke perused. "How in the world did you secure 'minced leviathan,' in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania?"

"I checked . You can substitute tarragon."

"The 'sour lamb' must be the smell," Sasuke said, wrinkling his nose. "That will linger. And if your parents learn you cooked meat, woe to you."

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice here!"

Sasuke laughed. "Yes. By providing me a nice case of trichinosis. Hare are notorious carriers. The inexperienced should not dabble with game." He lifted the lid on the potted hare, which was stewing away, then glanced at me, one eyebrow arched. "You did clean this little beast, correct?"

"Like . . . wash it in the sink?"

"Remove the innards. I see something floating in there. .."

"There were innards?"

Sasuke grabbed a slotted spoon and stirred around in the pot. "Now I believe we've identified the source of the odor. I would say this is a spleen," he announced, fishing out some-thing that looked slippery.

"Nasty little organ. Not the most palatable part of anything. Even starving cats won't ingest spleen."

"I guess we should just dump the hare," I said glumly. The dinner wasn't turning out as well as I'd hoped.

"Actually, Saku, as much as I appreciate the effort. .."

There was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me," Sasuke said, heading to answer it.

"Urn, sure." I peeked in the pot. There were other slippery things starting to bubble around in there, too, as the hare broke down. Yikes. Who knew?

The door squeaked open.

"Sasuke-kun! Hey!"

Feeling something like a kick to my gut, I slammed down the lid of the pot. I knew that falsely chipper voice.

Karin

What is she doing here?

"Did you have any trouble with the snow?" Sasuke inquired.

I smelled pizza over the stench of the spleen.

"No, it's no big deal to me." Karin laughed. "I borrowed my dad's Hummer. If I was in an accident, I wouldn't be the one killed." What a humanitarian. I moved to the entrance to the kitchenette, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, watching them.

"Finally, a Lebanon Countian who understands how to handle a scattering of frozen precipitation,"

Sasuke said, approvingly. "And might I add that you're looking lovely, as usual. Although it really goes without saying." Ugh.I was going to throw up and not from eating organ meats.

"Sasuke-kun!" Karin balanced the pizza box like a waitress, freeing one hand to clasp his forearm flirtatiously. "You always say the right thing."

"And you have brought the right thing," he said, unburdening her of the pizza. "This is one local delicacy that I have honestly come to appreciate."

"It sure smells better than whatever's cooking in here." Karin glanced around, seeking the source of the odor, and noticed me. "Oh, hi." She wrinkled her nose. "I was just saying something stinks in here."

"It sure does," I agreed.

Sasuke brushed past me, carrying the pizza into the kitchenette.

"As I was about to say, Saku, dinner would be somewhat inconvenient this evening, as I've invited Karin over to study."

"Study?" I felt more stewed than my rabbit. More sour than the lamb soup.

"Yes," Karin said. "Sasuke asked me to be his partner in English lit."

Partner? For what? And if there is any partnering to do, why wasn't I asked?Ilooked to Sasuke, knowing there was betrayal in my eyes. Wanting him to see it. But he was avoiding me.

"Yes, recall how I volunteered to do my 'mandatory oral book report' on Wuthering Heights?" he asked. "Well, after sitting through endlessly stultifying—and seldom edifying— presentations by our classmates, I thought it might be interesting to condense the novel into a small play. Highlight the dramatic parts."

"I'm going to be Catherine," Karin noted.

"I guess that makes you Heathcliff," I said to Sasuke, barely masking the unhappiness in my voice.

"Precisely."

I switched off the burners. Maybe the stench I caused will fade in a year or so. "I guess I'll get going, then. Don't want to interrupt you."

"You could stay for pizza," Sasuke offered. "You must not have eaten. At least, I hope you didn't taste the hare. It may not have boiled long enough to kill the parasites . . ."

"You're boiling hair?" Karin interjected. "Is that how you get it that way, Saku?"

I glared at Karin for a long time, wishing I had a really great comeback. But nothing came to mind.

Nothing. "I'll just head back to the house," I said, trying to exit with a little dignity. Trying to get out without crying. It had turned out all wrong. The whole thing was a disaster.

Sasuke must have seen my disappointment, the humiliation on my face, because he said, "Excuse us for a moment, Karin."

"Sure, Sasuke," she offered, removing herself to the other side of the small space. "I'll just check out your weapons over here. I love the diabolical decor."

Sasuke took my arm, leading me toward the door. "Saku," he said softly, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I hardly bothered to lower my voice. Tears really were welling in my eyes. Jealous tears. Embarrassed tears. I was so stupid. I'd tried to cook a rabbit for him, and he had a girl coming over. Not just any girl. Karin.

"It was kind of you to try ... a sweet gesture .. ." There was pity in Sasuke's eyes as he pushed a stray curl behind my ear, as if I were a hurt child. "But perhaps not the best idea. Not now."

"Yes," I agreed, shoving his hand away from my face. "It was a mistake."

"Karin is a friend," he explained calmly. "I find that I need a friend right now. Someone who understands me."

That really stung. Who could understand him better? "I understand you."

"No. Not in the same way ..." He glanced at Karin, who had removed a sword from the wall and was testing the point. "I can't explain it right now."

"Oh, you don't have to."

His voice hardened a bit, as did his grip on my arm. "Saku, you have Naruto. You chose Naruto .And you have Ino, too. Must I be isolated?"

"No. Of course not. Whatever." I tore my arm from his grasp, flung open the door, and ran out of the apartment, not bothering to grab my jacket. As I stomped down the stairs, the tears really started to spill, and I heard Sasuke step out onto the landing. "Saku, please ..." I ignored him and kept going, and he didn't call again. Be-fore I had even reached the bottom, I heard the door to the apartment thud shut.

I got that familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach hurt and pain.

Sasuke Pov:

To say I felt bad would be an underestimate but the way I'm feeling now makes me feel like shit. The minute Karin walked in all I saw was betrayal and hurt in her eyes. I knew was all in the plan but, to constantly hurt her made me feel terrible. I sighed to myself walking back inside. Knowing that there weren't going to be any 'studying' tonight.

When I walked back in Karin was seated on my bed scrolling through her phone. When she noticed my presence she got up and smiled. I wrapped my arms around her waist kissing her trying to make my frustrations go away. She moaned into the kiss well backing us up bringing us down on top of my bed. We pulled apart and I rolled underneath her so she was on top straddling my lap while I had my hands behind my head underneath waiting to see a strip show.

She took off her shirt and red lacy bra, while bouncing on my lap. I watched as her DD breast bounce up and down the bright pink nipples hard. She was wearing a long skirt so she just pulled it up over her head leaving her only in red lacy panties. She tugged at my shirt making me take it off revealing my muscular six packs with the scars on them, and my tattoo on my shoulder. She leaned down kissing my chest leading down to my waist. To be honest I had to think of Sakura throughout all of this to make me hard, Karin was attractive and all but she was attractive in a slutty porn star way. The women I like are the innocent ones but most women I've slept with are the slutty ones.

She had my pants and boxers off. She grabbed my 9 in a half inch dick kissing the tip, I put my hands behind my head again as she went to work.

He watched her with darkened eyes as she knelt down between his legs and stared raptly at his cock for a few moments before lowering her head to give the tip a gentle lick. He exhaled sharply, and, encouraged, she ran her tongue up the underside of his shaft while her hand gripped his balls. She wrapped her mouth fully over the head of his cock. "Ah!" he hissed, one hand reaching out to seize her hair and drive his erection further into the warm wetness of her mouth. Karin couldn't lie … she liked the strong grip of Sasuke's hand tangled in the hair at the back of her neck, and she liked the roughness with which he shoved his dick up into her throat.

She felt her pussy pulsing with the need to be filled, and, half-consciously, she moved her unoccupied hand down to rub herself through her dampening shorts. The burning sensation that shot through her groin at her touch made her groan around Sasuke's thick shaft, and his response was to push her head down harder while he thrust his hips up to meet her. Fingers moving deftly over her clit, Karin felt herself coming close to orgasm. Sasuke seemed to realize this and, unwilling to allow her to get herself off, he jerked her head up and pulled her to a standing position. Without pausing, he rose, pressed his body against hers and grabbed her hips, lifting her up and causing her to lock her legs around his hips.

But when Sasuke rubbed his naked cock against her clothed center her mind when almost blank. "Do you like this?" Sasuke growled in a deep voice that sent shivers down her spine and another heated wave through her contracting pussy. He kneaded his fingers into her ass and continued to move against her in a way that had her cursing her panties. "Do you know how much I want to fuck you right now? God …" he snarled as he bit into her neck and began unbuttoning the garment keeping him from ramming into her.

Unable to form words, Karin merely whimpered at his questions and slipped her fingers through his hair. At his wordless insistence, she lowered her legs to the ground and stepped out of the panties that he'd slid down her hips and dropped to the floor. In an instant, her legs were wrapped around his hips once again and he'd driven his cock deep into her pussy. The force of his entrance had knocked her head against the wall, but Sasuke could tell that she didn't mind (if her pleasured shout was any indication), and he certainly didn't care about anything but the feeling of her warmth encasing his shaft. Her pussy had contracted sharply around him and she let out a scream he was sure would wake their teammates, even if they were on the other side of the base. He willed himself to withstand the commands of her rippling orgasm and continued to plunge into her as her cum splashed against his stomach and thighs.

Karin couldn't believe the intensity with which she had come, nor did she think her over-sensitized pussy could withstand his persistent thrusts. Yet he continued to pick up speed and the throbbing in her center turned from a pleasured-pain into the beginnings of another orgasm. Sasuke's grunts and warm breath blew into her ear, and she swore she could feel him getting impossibly harder.

"Ah, fuck,Sakura," he rasped, his deep voice broken by his harsh breathing. She watched him pull his head back from the juncture of her neck to squeeze his eyes shut in what might have passed for a look of pain. "Fuck!" he shouted, and his movements became erratic as his second orgasm of the night tore through him. He purposely called out Sakura name to get Karin more frustrated.

His thrusting slowed as his orgasm faded, and Sasuke let his hands slip down from their position on Karin's ass to ghost over her thighs while he slid out of her, their combined juices dripping to the floor.


	36. 6th Letter

DEAR Madara,

December in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, would quite "blow your mind," to use the expression I have determined to be my favorite of all those I've acquired during my extended stay. Is it a good thing to have one's mind "blown"?Or a bad thing? Even in context, it is sometimes difficult to tell — although I quite enjoy trying to conjure the visual imagery. Heads exploding. Exposed brains on tables, caressed by the breeze from electric fans. That sort of thing.

Remaining on the subject of visual stimulation: December is celebrated quite heartily here in the United States. Aggressively, one might say. Every conceivable surface is corseted with strands of twinkle lights, buildings are smothered beneath greenery, and a mass mania for erecting oversized, inflatable, waving "snow-men" in front of homes erupts amid the populace. It's quite a hysteria— and the evergreen trees are not just a myth, Madara. People really do purchase them, in abundance. They are for sale every-where . Imagine paying for the privilege of dragging a filthy piece of the forest into your living area for the purpose of bedecking it with glass balls and staring at it.

Why a tree? If one needed to display glass balls—and I highly discourage it — why not just a case of some sort? A rack?

Honestly, I've expended so much energy defending vampires against charges of "irrationality." Had I known about the ubiquity of the temporary in-house evergreen, I would have said, merely, "Yes, perhaps I am irrational. But I keep my trees where they belong. Out-of-doors. You tell me, who is the sane one?"

But enough about "the holidays." (Ho-ho-hold my head under water until I drown and am freed from yet another round of "Jingle Bells"!) I write primarily to report that I have very little to report. I seem to be healed, and I have mastered the art of sleeping in "social studies" class.

(Drone on, Miss Campbell! I have circumvented your nefarious attempt to make tedious World War I one of Earth's most dramatic conflicts: mustard gas! Trenches! The obliteration of no less than four empires!)

Oh, yes. You might be interested— or perhaps not— to know that I have also made a friend. A quite iniquitous girl, Madara. I feel rather confident that the "jolly old elf" St. Nick has inked her firmly on his "naughty" list. (A reference too obscure for you, no doubt. Just trust me: She is rather a fascinating creature.) Her name is Karin. While often "cross," she is as "faithless" as one can imagine. You know I love irony. I'm using Karin to make Sakura jealous and for other matters. So far it's working I've even over heard her and friend talking about getting me and Sakura together.

I suppose that is all from "stateside."

I would wish you a "merry Christmas," but really, I feel certain that the only thing you would like less than the holiday would be the state of "merriness."

You nephew,

Sasuke


	37. Book Report

SASUKE AND Karin were late to English lit on the day of their big presentation, arriving five minutes after the bell rang— the better to surprise us all by appearing in costume. At least,Karin wore a faded dress that looked to be from the Victorian era—and which pinched her waist and strained across her boobs so tightly that Kiba, in front of me, nearly fell off his chair when she swept into the room. Lucius, for his part as Heathcliff, simply resurrected the velvet coat and black trousers he'd worn on a regular basis just a month or so before.

"Oh, goodness" was all Mrs. Wilhelm could muster at the sight. I suspect that she was a little worried about Faith's boobs popping out at an inopportune time, which would definitely violate the school's dress code.

It was Sasuke, though, who immediately commanded center stage, introducing his little play, lecturing with more authority than Mrs. Wilhelm had ever managed.

"Heathcliff is a wild thing—a damned man," Sasuke reminded us. "Catherine is damned, too. Damned to love Heath cliff, who must destroy her and her progeny? It is in his nature to take what he wants. And what he desires is vengeance, above all. And Catherine, she is an admirable savage. Theirs is a heart-less, cruel, bitter, evil love."

"Oh, goodness," Mrs. Wilhelm fluttered again from the seat she'd taken in the back corner. This time, I think she was swooning a bit over Sasuke.

"I do so appreciate this story," Sasuke added in an aside. "It resonates."

I twisted my pen in my fingers, nearly snapping it, con-fused and sick at heart. Heartless, cruel, evil love. Is that what he wants? Is that what he always expected with me? Did Sasuke ever expect any kind of "love" with me?

I glanced back at Naruto, who shrugged and rolled his blue eyes, like he thought the whole production was a bit over the top. I smiled at him but weakly. Why, why can't I feel more for Naruto? He's handsome, popular, without a cruel or dangerous bone in his muscle-bound body. Why am I so drawn to turn back around and watch Sasuke? A guy who is totally wrong for me? An arrogant, enigmatic, potentially dangerous VAMPIRE?

Naruto was the sensible, sweet, predictable choice.

Yet I spun back around, eager to watch Sasuke.

When I rejoined the drama, he was facing Karin, and their play began. Somehow, they had condensed the first half of the book, grabbing quotes here and there, making some up, I suppose, and stitching them together into an intense twenty-five-minute scene that took Heathcliff and Catherine from their gleefully negligent childhood on the moors to Catherines care-less discard of Heathcliff for the milder, blander Mr. Linton.

At least, I think that's what they acted out. All I could focus on were the rough and tender movements of their bodies. The way Sasuke snatched Karin's wrist, yanking her to his chest. The way Karin's eyes snapped as she tore herself away. The passion almost looked . . . real.

My plastic pen really did crack under the pressure of my fingers, ink staining my hand and spattering my cheek. No, Sasuke. No.

No one even noticed. The whole class was spellbound as Karin, blue eyes locked with Sasuke's black ones, whispered, voice hot with what I desperately feared was not feigned ardor, "Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same."

They stood there, frozen, face to face, until someone realized it was time to applaud. And applaud they did. Ino knelt on her seat, jammed her fingers in her mouth and whistled, which I hadn't even known she could do.

As if awakened by that shrill alarm, Sasuke and Karin broke character, smiled, clasped hands, and bowed deeply toward their audience. Somehow,Karin boobs stayed in place, although the way Kiba Inuzaka was craning his neck, I think he at least got a nice view down her dress.

I had to admit, it was the best book report I'd ever seen. Probably the best book report ever delivered at Woodrow Wilson High School.

I despised every moment of it.

Sasuke was my betrothed. It should have been me up there. Something had been stolen from me. And not just a few seconds of glory in front of a classroom. I knew, at that moment, that I'd squandered my chance at a lifetime of glory at the side of the most compelling, infuriating, charismatic, terrifying man I'd ever met. A part of me knew that I should feel relieved. Shaking free of Sasuke Uchiha was all I'd longed for, for months. And yet, all I felt was empty and defeated and desperate to figure out how to bring him back to me. Then I remembered the pact. Lucius would never dishonor the pact. Would he?

As the applause died, Karin bounced down the aisle to take her seat behind me, followed by Sasuke, who didn't even ac-knowledge me as he walked past.

It struck me, then. Did I even want him if he was only bound to me by obligation? What sort of victory would that be?

I glanced around at Sasuke, but he was leaning forward, whispering with Karin.

A heartless, cruel, bitter, evil love. . .Did Sasuke eally want that? Did he honestly want Faith? If so, had I ever really had a chance? Should I even consider wanting a chance?


	38. A mistake

"I'VE GOT YOUR laundry," I called, kicking at the door to Sasuke's apartment.

He swung open the door. "Why, thank you, Saku." He accepted the heaping basket of jumbled clothes from my arms with a frown. "What is this?"

"Mom said you can start folding your own clothes."

"But—"

"The free ride is over, Sasuke," I advised him, following him into the apartment. I hadn't been inside since I'd tried to cook the disastrous Romanian dinner a week ago. The apartment still smelled a little bit like spleen. Sasuke dumped his clothes onto the bed and stepped back, surveying the tangled mess. "I suppose it's too late to hire a washerwoman ..."

"Oh, for crying out loud. Don't be such a baby. I do this twice a week. And I don't think there are any 'washerwomen' around."

"That is your regional misfortune, not mine." He picked up a sock, holding it out like it he'd never seen one before. "Where does one even begin?"

I snatched the sock from his fingers. "You say you can lead a vampire nation, but you can't match socks?"

"We are all skilled differently," Sasuke pointed out, unable to suppress a grin. "Fortunately, my skills fall under the heading of leadership, not 'base chores.'"

I reluctantly smiled, too. How can arrogance grow on a person? "I'll help you—once."

"Thank you, Saku." Sasuke plopped into his deep leather chair.

"I said 'help,' not 'do it for you.'"

He made no effort to move. On the contrary, Sasuke smirked, slid lower in the chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "I believe I would be best served by a demonstration."

"You jerk," I cried, tossing the sock back on the pile and grabbing his arm, tugging him upright. Of course, Sasuke was far too strong for me, and when he pulled back, I ended up tumbling onto his chest, both of us laughing.

Gradually the laughter faded, and our eyes really connected for the first time since that awful night I'd tried to stew a hare. Suddenly, we weren't joking at all.

"Saku," he said softly, circling my wrist with his fingers. "Yes, Sasuke?" I leaned more heavily against his chest, my heart starting to beat harder.

Maybe I hadn't been bested by Karin . . . His eyes had that same look I'd seen on Halloween, but without the anger and frustration. Instead, there was a gentler kind of desire there. A less fearsome, but almost as frightening, desire. Yet I didn't move from him. I knew, this time, that I didn't want to move. I could handle what happened. I would handle it.

Releasing my wrist, Sasuke tugged gently on one of my shiny curls, letting it spring back into place. "You've changed your hair. Embraced your beautiful curls."

"Do you like it?"

"You know I do . . ." He twined another lock around his finger. "This . . . this is true to you." I shifted slightly, and my hand rested on the hard curve of his bicep. He was wearing a T-shirt, and I could feel the jagged scar that ripped across his arm. My confidence wavered for a moment. Honor. Discipline. Force. He was raised differently from you, Saku. . . . The Uchiha's are ruthless. . . .

"How . . . how did you get this?" I asked, tracing the scar with my fingertips.

Something changed in his eyes. The glimmer in the black-ness dimmed slightly. "An accident. Not a story worth telling."

He was lying.

I kept tracing the scar. It was wide, and I couldn't imagine what could tear flesh like that. . . until I thought of the weapons on his wall. But who would do that to him? To anyone?

"You can tell me what happened," I urged. / understand you. . . . Or I can try to. . . . Why are you drawing out this side of him, Saku? Why can't you leave well enough alone? Because I want to know about him. That's why. I wanted to know the truth about Sasuke. His stories. His past. What he wanted.

"Saku." He groaned, encircling my waist. "If we could only not talk, right at this moment. If we could just be." No. Whatever happened. . . it had to be on my terms, too. I'd seen him with Karin. I wouldn't be a fool. I wouldn't fall for his charm, his experience . . . not if what he really wanted was some-one different or something I couldn't provide. . . . I traced the other scar, on his jaw, and he caught my hand, pulling away slightly. "Saku ..."

"Do you really want that?" I whispered. He kept hold of my hand, moving it to his mouth, brushing his rough lips across my palm. "Want what, Saku?"

"What you said in class?"

He seemed uncertain. "In class . . . ?"

"A 'bitter, cruel, evil love'? Is that what you really want?"

When I said that, it was like I'd cut a cord that bound us, and Sasuke, still holding my hand, sat upright, pulling me to my feet, gently but very firmly pushing me away. He stood, too.

"Sasuke?"

He smiled at me then, grimly, like we hadn't just shared what we'd shared. "We loiter, wasting time, and the laundry waits on the bed," he said, the old, distancing mockery in his voice. He leaned over the mattress and grabbed a pair of his boxers. "At this rate, every wrinkle will be set. And a Uchiha may fold, under duress, but we do not iron."

"Sasuke?" I touched his arm. I didn't want to know, but I had to know. "What, exactly is going on with you and Karin?"

Sasuke shook out the underwear, studiously avoiding my eyes. "Karin?"

I sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yes. Karin."

* * *

><p>Sasuke POv:<p>

Now was the time to really set in jealousy."She intrigues me,", managing somehow to fold his own undergarments.

"Why? Why do you like her?"

I started to read her mind to see what she was thinking. Did I mention Uchiha's can read certain mortal minds and weak vampires mines? _"As if I didn't know. Sasuke Uchiha could talk all he wanted about the beauty of curves and curls and the importance of having a presence, but in the end, he was just like every other man—every boy —who fell for the blond, size 0 cheer-leader with the flat abs, the perky little breasts, and the skinny butt that played peekaboo from under that stupid short skirt."_

I smirked at that she truly doesn't understand my choice in woman but I might as well play the part.

"Oh, Saku," Sasuke said, sounding somewhat exasperated. "I've asked you for months how you can favor a peasant, and you've never provided me a satisfactory response. Perhaps these things just can't be easily explained away."

"So you do like Karin?"

I looked at her then. "I appreciate her."

The flat-out admission made me queasy, even though I'd already known the answer. I blushed knowing full well what he meant. So they are sleeping together"Is there a difference?"

I sighed and sat down next to me on the bed, staring at the wall. "Perhaps, Saku. Does it really matter at this point?"

"What does that mean? Why do you keep saying things like 'at this point'? Like the pact is over? And what about the war?

I inwardly smirked knowing that she only believed a little bit but not all of it. "You don't even believe in the pact or the war."

"I do now," I insisted.

I ignored this revelation, even though I'd thought it was all I ever wanted to hear from Her. A small smile crossed his face. "This upcoming Christmas dance. It's a much anticipated social event, is it not?" he mused. "Girls want to go, correct? Squatty will don his best 'overalls' and take you, yes?"

"About Naruto ..." What am I going to do about Naruto? Ever since that day in the gym when I'd confided my doubts about our relationship to Ino, I'd been distancing myself from him. And when I'd turned too eagerly away from Naruto to watch Sasuke perform his drama in English lit, I'd known I was turning my back on a great guy ... a guy who genuinely liked me. Someone sweet who didn't drink blood or bear dangerous scars. And yet I'd done it. "I don't know if Naruto and I are going to the formal," I said. "We're sort of. .. drifting apart."

Shrugging, Sasuke stood and resumed folding laundry. "You two must do what makes you both happy, Saku. Do what is right for you."

"And you'll do what's 'right for you,' I guess," She glumly said making fell sorry for her.

"This is America, as I am constantly reminded in social studies," Sasuke pointed out. "We all have a choice in every-thing here." He mimicked a scale with his hands. "Pepsi or Coke? Big Mac or Whopper?

The old boyfriend or the new?"

"Yeah, what about Kiba?" she asked. "He and Karin have been together forever."

"I just told you, Saku. We all have a choice. Karin has a choice. Kiba has no claim on her. I've seen no ring on her finger."

Of course Karin had a choice. And she'd already chosen me. I'd seen it back in the gym and in English lit class. Hell, I'd seen it back at the 4-H competition, when she'd absently gripped Saku arm, watching Sasuke tear up the course on his doomed mare..

I smirked at her then, although there was something like sadness in her eyes. "You are fortunate, Saku," he said. "You are not bound so tightly by tradition, by the weight of the past. You are free here. Not only to choose a soft drink but your destiny. Rather exhilarating feeling, isn't it?"

"If you're so into Karin, then what the hell was that?" She pointed to the leather chair Bingo! I can feel the jealousy in the air. " Where we'd just been tangled up together like the laundry on the bed. Where I'd sworn you was about to kiss me—at the very least. Back in the chair? When you had your arm around me?" She demanded. "What was that, Sasuke?"

I lowered the T-shirt I'd been folding, arms dropping to his sides. "That, Saku," he said knowing I would regret but was necessary, "was very nearly a mistake."

_A mistake? Had he really just said, "A mistake"? _Saku just thought to herself.

Rising to her full five foot four inches, and mustering a strength that I never knew she could possessed, fueled by an indignation I hadn't known she was capable of, she drew back her open hand and slapped me so hard across the face that my head snapped sideways.

I smirked expecting that, I didn't dodge that hit only because she needed to release her anger. She try to come in for another hit but I grabbed her hand, twisting it behind her back while pushing her on my bed. She struggled trying to free herself from my hard grip.

_Stupid Romanian bloodsucker. He was lucky I hadn't be-stowed another exalted scar on his imperial body. If he ever messed with Saku Haku—Sakura Haruno—again, he'd really get the royal treatment. Sasuke Uchiha could take that to the Bucharest Federal Savings and Loan and bank it— right into his damned trust fund._

All of her emotions were coming out in one anger, bitterness, jealousy. I truly felt bad at this moment. And then I heard a surprise sound to my ear. Sobbing. I knew she would be angry but I didn't think this would make her cry otherwise I would've said something else. Maybe this is frustrations tears.

I listened more closely; no this was heart breaking tears. Tears of already broken girl finally at her peak.

"Let me go.. please Sasuke." I didn't let go I wanted answers first. "Why are you crying?"

She didn't respond, instead she started screaming at me. "LET ME GO I HATE YOU I HATE ALL MEN ALL THEY EVER DO IS HURT ME!" she started thrashing around again. I sighed I open my eyes to reveal my sharingan. I was going to use my sharingan to look into her memories to see where this hate was coming from.

I slowly turned her around she didn't fight she just kept crying. She closed her eyes, in order for me to get her memories I needed them open so I did the only thing I could think of when I saw her beautiful body underneath me. I kissed her.

She immediately open her eyes. Leading me to immediately activate my sharingan. She froze and I was finally inside of her head.

* * *

><p>When you enter someone mind using sharingan if there is something in particular you wanted to see just say it in your head and it will appear or if you don't know the keyword for what your looking for then you can ask the brain a question like. <em>Why is Sakura hurt by me saying the word mistake?<em> . Immediately a lot of memories popped up of guys calling her things from annoying to ugly, to other things. But the one thing that caught my attention was not one but three different scenarios of three different guys telling her she was mistake that not only her parents didn't want but they didn't either. The first guy slapped her after saying that, the second guy pushed her into a wall walking away with another female, and the third guy walked away shoving Sakura into a muddy ground as he walked off laughing with his friends.

I thought to the brain to show me more recent memories. I saw a memory of Sakura crying in her bed all alone at night thinking about me and Karin making out in the green house.

"_I'm so confuse why does this hurt so much?" _

"_What is it about Sasuke that makes me feel this way?" _

"_No I shouldn't fall in love with him all he's going to do is play me and hurt me like all the other guys." _

"_But you trust him for some strange reason."  
>"Why do you like Sasuke anyways." <em> Her thoughts in the memory paused for a minute thinking about why she liked me, then they started up again.

"_I like Sasuke because he thinks I'm beautiful when other guys have called me fat and ugly. He's so mature and so strong. He doesn't have to demand respect he already gets it. Not to mention he's so handsome. If I were to marry Sasuke would he really take care or after a couple of months would he stop calling me beautiful and start cheating on me? Or would he find me overly sensitive like Kisame did and dump for the next hottest chick he could find. " _

Her tears came back at that thought. I felt bad I was causing her more pain to her long line of history, I'm making her jealousy but her fangs still haven't come out. I sighed one more push if it doesn't work I'll lie to Madara tell him she has her fangs and then try to marry her. I can't keep hurting her.

I came out her memories and deactivated my sharingan. When I open my eyes her breathing was slow and her eyes were close I realized my sharingan put her to sleep. I sighed and grabbed a blanket and put it over her body. I went to the small couch and laid on it knowing Sakura would be 10 times more pissed with me if she woke up to find me next to her.


	39. Fangs

I awoke not remembering how I feel asleep, I felt something warm and soft on me. I open my eyes and sat up slowly, I was inside of Sasuke room or whatever he was laying on the couch with one hand draped over his eyes the other resting on his stomach. I blushed at the fact that Sasuke had put a blanket on me and even got on the couch to be respectful to me. Then I thought about yesterday remembering what that bastard said what happen in that intimate moment was a mistake. I frowned blinking back the tears trying not to remember that moment.

_"If you're so into Karin, then what the hell was that?" She pointed to the leather chair Bingo! I can feel the jealousy in the air. " Where we'd just been tangled up together like the laundry on the bed. Where I'd sworn you was about to kiss me—at the very least. Back in the chair? When you had your arm around me?" She demanded. "What was that, Sasuke?"_

_I lowered the T-shirt I'd been folding, arms dropping to his sides. "That, Saku," he said knowing I would regret but was necessary, "was very nearly a mistake."_

I rubbed my eyes really hard to keep myself from crying. _"Ok Saku were just going to pretend nothing happen and keep my head held high and give him my prettiest smile." _

I got out of his bed straitening my clothes. Sasuke immediately sat up. I guess he was right about being a light sleeper I wouldn't be surprise if he woke up the minute he knew I was up. I looked out the window and notice it was about to be dark making it close to dinner time my parents will worry.

I looked at Sasuke who looked at me. _Time to begin. _I looked at him and tried to go for a warm smile. He looked at me with an eyebrow raised. _Please don't realize this is a fake smile. _"Are you ok? Your not mad about yesterday?" he asked curiously. "I'm fine Sasuke-kun I was just being sensitive." I said still fake smiling hoping he would give up. "You know Sakura I can read facial expressions and I can tell your hurt about yesterday. You don't have to lie to yourself." That took me by surprise.

"I don't mind Sasuke-kun." I said walking to the door. Before I could walk out I turned around continuing smiling at him. "I have Naruto so I'll be ok." I open the door and before it shut closed I heard him yell. "I know you past Saku and we will talk about it later." My body froze when he said that. It took a lot of will power to not walk back in there and demand what he meant but decide to shake it off.

* * *

><p>"Saku the phone is for you," Dad said, poking his head into my room. "It's Naruto."<p>

"I didn't even hear it ring," I admitted, sitting up and accepting the cordless from his hand. Id been lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking as usual about faithless vampires and the fact that my brain seemed to be disintegrating, and wishing that my life was just normal again. "Hey, Naruto," I said into the receiver with less enthusiasm than I knew I should have. "What's up?" I should break up with Naruto. I knew it, and yet I hadn't done it. Why? What am I waiting for?

"Hey, Saku," Naruto said. "I was just calling . . . well, I was wondering if we're still on for the Christmas formal. I haven't seen much of you at school. . ."

"Yeah, I guess I've been busy," I said. "I've been thinking we should get together and talk, though ..."

Outside, I heard the sound of a loud squeal, then laughter. I pulled aside the curtain. Sasuke and Karin were in the yard, having a very vigorous snow fight. As I watched, Sasuke swept up Karin and plunged her into a pile left by our plow, rubbing snow onto her pink wool hat. "Oh, Sasuke," she screamed, kicking at him. "You are such a jerk!"

Yes, Sasuke . . . yes, you are.

"Saku—are you there?"

"Oh, sorry, Naruto." I let the curtain drop. "I'm here."

"I was asking about the formal, because I have to rent a tux . . .Outside, more delighted, horrified squeals. Naruto added, a little uncertainly, "I really hope you still want to go, Saku." What a nice guy. A nice, nice guy. . . Beneath my window, Karin shrieked, "Don't touch me!" It sounded as though she wanted quite the opposite. I clutched the phone, forcing myself to pay attention to Naruto. Was I really sure I wanted to break up with him? Was I going to stop living just because I'd been thrown over by an overbearing foreign exchange student who'd tried to seduce me in his apartment only to admit that it would have been a "mistake"? Was I going to waste my entire senior year lying in bed, worrying about being a vampire, for god's sake?

No, I would not.

"Of course I want to go, Naruto," I said, forcing my voice to sound far more cheerful than I felt. "I'm looking forward to it." Relief flooded his voice. "Great, Saku. I'm going to get my tux tomorrow, then. If you're sure ..."

Will Karin never stop shrieking in my yard? "Of course I'm sure, Naruto," I said, adding just before we hung up, "It's going to be great." I stretched back out on my bed, pulling my pillow over my face, covering my ears to shut out how much fun my former blood-pact betrothed and Karin were having outside.

As I lay there hating them both, my teeth began to ache. At first, it was just a small, dull pain, but every time the sound of Faith and Lucius's mock battle carried to my ears, the hurt grew sharper, until it was almost like my teeth were too tightly wedged in my mouth, straining against my gums, and I wanted to claw at them, to pull them out, to find some way, the key, that would release them to become what they so desperately wanted to become.

Rolling off my bed, I rooted in my dresser, searching for my vampire manual, running my finger down the table of con-tents. There it was: Chapter 9, "Finding Your Way to Fangs!"

I flipped to the proper page.

"Girls will begin to feel their incisors ache as they approach age eighteen, although some 'early bloomers' may notice changes as young as age sixteen! The sensation often, although not exclusively, occurs during times of emotional stress, not unlike your initial thirst for blood. Try to be patient and accept the 'dental discomfort' as part of vampiric maturation, just as you learn to accept menstrual cramps as part of your concurrent growth into womanhood. Re-member, when you are first bitten, your fangs will be released to expand and blossom, and you will soon forget the temporary twinges that carried you into full vampiredom!"

My fangs could be released by a bite from a vampire. Of course. Sasuke had told me about that during our shopping trip. Women couldn't grow fangs until they were bitten. I stashed my guide away.

The good news was, I had a vampire handy in my backyard. The bad news was, I wanted to run a stake through his heart before he had any chance to come near me—not to mention the fact that he didn't seem to give a damn about me anymore. What was a "blossoming" young vampire to do?


	40. Getting Ready

"YOU ARE SO LUCKY that at least one of us reads Cosmo and Vogue," Ino chided me, clomping into my room burdened by at least ten shoe boxes. The pile was so high she couldn't even see around it.

"Ino and her shoe collection to the rescue!"

My best friend dropped the boxes to the floor in a tumbling pile, and her eyes grew wide when she saw me. "Holy shit, Saku!"

"Is that. . . good?"

Ino ran over, grabbed my bare arms, and spun me around, looking me up and down. "You look . . . you look gorgeous."

"Okay," I calmed her down, prying off her fingers one by one. "Take it easy, because this dress cost me practically every penny I earned at the diner over the course of the whole summer."

"It was worth every cent," Ino said, nodding. "Every freakin' cent." I glanced in the mirror that hung on the back of my bed-room door. "It is beautiful, isn't it?" "You are beautiful," Ino corrected. "The dress just lets the rest of us know. Where did you get it? Because that is not some polyester job from the mall."

"I went back to that snooty store where I got my dress for Halloween," I said. This time, it had been up to me to boss Leigh Ann around. But I had learned a lot from Sasuke. Who knew, just a few months ago, how much could be accomplished simply by holding your chin high and talking down your nose?

"This is, like, real velvet," Ino said, rubbing the fabric with awe in her voice. "Yes, the top—the bodice, as Sasuke would say—is velvet, and the skirt is hand-loomed Japanese silk." I smoothed my hands over the pure black dress. It was as dark and soft as an August night sky just before a storm. Strapless, the dress was cut straight and hugged my size ten body like the world's best, custom-fitted glove. Not too tight, but just close enough to show off every arc and hollow of my form.

Looking in the mirror, I was glad I wasn't too skinny. This wasn't a dress made for a boyish figure. "I have the perfect shoes," Ino squealed, digging amid her boxes. She held up a pair of strappy heels, very subdued for Ino, but just right for the dress. "These will go great."

"Are you sure it's okay if I borrow them . . . ?"

"Yeah," Ino said, with only the slightest hint of regret or jealousy in her voice. "It's not like I go anywhere. They might as well get some use." Taking the shoes, I hugged her. "Thanks, Ino. You're the best."

"Oh, don't get all sappy," she said. "We still have to do your hair, and it's almost seven o'clock."

"Do you think you could help me with, like, an up do?" I re-quested. "I want it to be perfect. Even better than at Halloween."

"Do I not read Cosmo, Vogue, and Celebrity Hairstyle?" Ino pointed out, reaching for my hairbrush.

"You're in good hands, Saku Haku."

I hesitated, and then reached for the photograph of my birth mother, which I had moved to a small silver frame that I kept on my desk. "Do you think you could make me look a little like . . . her?" I handed Ino the picture, and she gawked at it, jaw actually dropping. "Saku. . . this is . . . this has to be . . ." She glanced up at me, clearly astonished. "Was she like a princess or something?"

"It's a long story," I said, taking the photo back. I gazed at my birth mother. "But she was special. Yes."

"What the hell aren't you telling me here?" Ino demanded, curious and a little wary. "Something's going on."

"It's just a memento I was given," I explained vaguely, setting the photo on my desk. "Something I couldn't face before..."

"Saku, she looks exactly like you. It's almost eerie." I flushed with pleasure. Is she not beautiful. . . powerful. . . regal. . . like YOU? "Thanks, Ino, but can we talk about it later? Right now, I'm just desperate for help with my hair." At the mention of hair, Ino snapped back to the present and scooped up a big handful of my glossy curls. "I am all over it, Saku. When I'm done with you, every girl at Woodrow Wilson is going to wish she was you."

About fifteen minutes and a complete pump bottle of hair-spray later, Ino held up a mirror. My curls were artfully, but chaotically, arranged on my head, like a glorious, lustrous crown, and she'd taken a thick handful and twisted it around the up do, not unlike the silver coronet in the photo of my birth mother.

Ino had done very well. "I will never laugh about Celebrity Hairstyles again," I promised. Downstairs the doorbell rang. "Saku?" Ino asked, giving me one last spritz.

"What?" I was still admiring myself in the mirror.

"Is all this for Naruto ... or does this have something to do with the fact that Sasuke is taking Karin? I know you always say you don't like him. But it still sucks sometimes when somebody who's been into you has a change of heart. . ."

"It's all for me," I interrupted her, squaring my shoulders. The dress, the hair, the shoes . . . they were all about me taking pride in myself. Believing that I was beautiful. Believing that I was worthwhile.

Forget Sasuke and Karin. I intended to have a presence. "Well, knock 'em dead," Ino said, giving me a careful hug, so as not to mess my hair. "You look amazing." I caught my reflection one last time as I went down to greet Naruto. Amazing. That was one word for my transformation. I would have added, perhaps, royal, too.

In spite of being more than a little sad, and more than a little hurt, and completely confused by the state of my life, the young woman in the mirror managed a smile.


	41. The Dance

"YOU LOOK REALLY pretty, Saku," Naruto said, handing me some punch. "You look nice, too, Naruto." Nice. "It's too bad you've been so swamped lately," he added. "I've kind of missed hanging out with you."

"You know, senior year." I shrugged, sipping my punch. "I hear ya," Naruto agreed. "It's totally busting my butt." I flinched a little at the crude expression. It seemed like something a . . . a . . . peasant might say. "I mean, if I don't get a wrestling scholarship, I'll be stuck at community college for two years," he continued. "That's gonna suck. I guess your applications are all out there already."

"I have to go to Grantley," I said. "You know, where my mom teaches. I go for free."

"Cool. Free."

I sipped my punch again, wishing Naruto and I had more in common. Maybe it had been a mistake to come with him. Maybe I should have just stayed home. . . . "Whoa." Naruto's eyes widened, and he pointed over my shoulder. "Check that out."

"What?" I turned, and my heart seized up for a second. Sasuke had arrived with Karin's hand tucked in the crook of his arm. She was shimmering in a silver gown, with thin straps that slithered down her shoulders and gloves that snaked up to her elbows, her fair hair seized within a sparkling tiara, like some sort of ice princess. A harshly glittering snow queen.

And Sasuke . . . Sasuke was her dark counterpart in a perfectly fitting tuxedo. Even from across the gym it was easy to see that his suit was no rental like Naruto's. Sasuke's tuxedo was ex-pertly custom-tailored for his tall, lean body, the pants cut perfectly to break at the top of shoes as impeccably polished as his manners.

I glanced at Naruto. His tux was appropriate. Conservative black. Nothing obnoxious or embarrassing. But it strained across his bulging shoulders, and his bow tie was just the slightest bit askew. It was completely unfair to compare the two—I mean, Naruto couldn't afford a custom tux—but compare them I did. My blood-pact partner had never looked so good. And Karin glistened like a tall, cool icicle dripping from his arm. She leaned close, pulling Sasuke down, whispering in his ear. He laughed, flashing teeth as pure white as his crisp shirt.

"Kiba is not going to like this,"Naruto muttered, grinning.

Glancing around the dark gym, I easily located Kiba Inuzaka, with his pudgy goon partner Suigetsui at his side. Kiba was shooting daggers at Sasuke and Karin, his chest actually heaving with rage. He clenched his paper cup, and punch shot out onto his shirt, which only angered him more. He brushed at the stain, and I could see his lips forming a stream of curses.

"Oh yeah, he's pissed," Naruto noted. "Sasuke better watch him-self in the parking lot. I heard Kiba wants to annihilate him. Go nuclear on his ass for going after Karin."

I looked back to Sasuke. He was leading Karin onto the dance floor, and she sort of tumbled into his arms, her gloved hands creeping up his chest, circling his neck. He slipped his hand onto the small of her back, resting it in the curve of her spine.

I'd seen enough. "Come on," I said, grabbing Naruto's hand. "Let's dance."

"Sure, if you're not afraid of me stepping on your shoes," Naruto joked. "I'm not too good."

"It's okay, Naruto," I assured him, suddenly feeling a tender spot in my heart for the guy who led me across the gym, my hand clutched in his stubby, work-calloused fingers. Of course Naruto couldn't dance, and he didn't own a tux, or know how to pay a suave compliment. He was a farm kid, not Romanian royalty. I slipped into his arms, and we made slow circles under the twinkle lights.

"This feels nice," Naruto said, holding me close.

"Yes," I agreed, trying to focus on that feeling of tenderness. He's nice, Saku. Try to feel something. Try to just enjoy being with a nice, normal guy. . . . Try to forget Sasuke and vampires and pacts. . . . Naruto leaned his forehead against mine. We were nearly the same height. "Saku . . ." He pulled me closer.

"It's been a while since I've kissed you."

"Yes, it has been," I agreed, not sure what else I could say. Just try, Saku . . . Naruto nuzzled closer. His lips were just about to meet mine, when he was yanked away. "Hey, what the . . . ?"

"May I cut in?" Sasuke was looming over us, smiling, but not in a happy way. Naruto twined his arm back around my waist. "Sasuke, we're kind of dancing here."

"And I 'm cutting in. That's how dancing works where I come from."

"We're not in . . . wherever you come from," Naruto said.

"Sasuke!" I hissed through gritted teeth, glaring at him. No. He had no right. Sasuke put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "My apologies, if I misunderstood your customs. But please, indulge me. I will not keep her from you long." Naruto looked to me, uncertain. "Just give us a second, Naruto," I said, looking daggers at Sasuke. "I'll handle it."

Naruto shot Sasuke a dark look, too. "Just one dance." Then he stomped off through the crowd, clearly not pleased. "What do you want?" I demanded. "We were just about—"

"Yes, I saw what you were 'just about.'"

"That's none of your business."

The song ended, and I crossed my arms over my chest, as though shielding myself against him. Because even when I hated Sasuke, I felt vulnerable to him. "The song is over, Sasuke. Go back to Karin."

"There will be a new song," he said. "That is how these events work, yes?"

And, of course, another song started.

"Shall we?" Sasuke asked, slipping his arm around my waist, drawing me to himself. "You won't stop until you get your way, will you?"

"No."

"Just one song, then," I grumbled, allowing myself to be pulled into his arms, hating the traitorous flutter in my stomach.

"Do you dance, Saku?" he asked, smiling down at me. "Waltz? Quadrille?"

"You know I don't."

"Ah, but with your grace, you should. I could have ..." Sasuke seemed to catch himself, and trailed off.

"For now, like this," he instructed, guiding my left hand to his shoulder and taking my right hand into his own, holding it close to his chest. His palm felt cool against the small of my back. That familiar coolness. Part of who he was. No, Saku. . . don't buy into it. . . . He's with Karin. . . . You're just a potential "mistake."

"Just follow my lead," Sasuke advised. "I shall guide you. Just trust me." Yeah. Trust you... Yet I allowed myself to be led, my body echoing his. "Yes, Saku," Sasuke said, looking down at me with admiration in his eyes. "You are a natural, as I would expect." As soon as he said that, I stumbled against him, stepping on those impeccable shoes. "Sorry," I apologized as he steadied me, drawing me even closer. "It's all right," Sasuke said. I realized that we had slowed almost imperceptibly, but enough to put us out of synch with the music, moving to our own quieter rhythm. "Everyone stumbles now and then," he added. "As you well know." He guided my hand to his cheek, placing my fingertips against the place I'd smacked. "I still sting here when I shave. But it was deserved."

"If you're trying to apologize ..."

"I'm trying to compliment you," he said. "It is the rare individual who can strike me and walk away unscathed."

The song was a long one, and we swayed together, still slightly out of time, but my heart had begun beating its own quick rhythm, the longer we held each other. God, I didn't want to feel this way. I wanted to hate Sasuke with even greater fervor for thrusting himself into my date, interrupting my attempt at a nice evening. I tried to keep Faith in mind. Karin, Karin, Karin. Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. Mistake, mistake, mistake.

Sasuke placed his fingers under my chin, tilting my head so he could see my eyes again. "I had no right to barge in like that. . . but I suppose old habits die hard."

For some reason, when he said that, I wanted to cry. I wanted the song to end right then, or maybe go on forever. And I wanted to cry.

"You just look so beautiful tonight," he continued. "When I saw you in that gown . . . God, Saku. I thought you were gorgeous before—and yet you out do yourself this evening." His fingertips stroked the back of my gown, feeling the rich fabric. "Black velvet and silk are perfect upon you. You are like a living Chopin nocturne. A soft, yet stirring harmony meant to be enjoyed at night..."

"Don't, Sasuke . . ."

"I just couldn't allow that boy —"

"You're with Karin," I reminded him, a bit sharply. "Not me." A fleeting pain flashed in his eyes, almost as if I'd slapped him again. "Yes, of course. Of course you are right. I won't interfere again, Sakura. I promise." My fingers tightened on his shoulder at the sound of my old name. The name I'd noticed he'd stopped using. "You called me by my name. My old name." Sasuke squeezed my hand, pressing his thumb against my palm. "Old habits. Old names. Old souls."

"Is that what we are?" I searched his dark eyes. We had a connection. . . . Dark mountains, blood pacts. . . He couldn't deny it. . . .

But he did. "These are new times."

Still, Sasuke let go of my hand in order to embrace me more completely, draw me even closer, until I almost felt like I was a part of him, hardly dancing anymore, just standing together in the middle of the room. "How you do vex me," he finally whispered, bending close to my ear. "How you do test my resolve."

And before I could even question what he meant— me, the vexing one?—he rested his forehead against mine, as Naruto had just done. Only Sasuke didn't move his mouth toward mine. He simply drew his lips gently across my cheek, down along my jaw . . . down to my throat.

A ferociously wonderful and terrifying sensation shuddered through me, and in the split second his lips crossed my jugular the whole gym disappeared. We were alone, I swore, in a candlelit stone room, our bare feet on a thick Persian rug, a fireplace blazing at my back. I'd been there; I knew it.

Lucius opened his mouth slightly, and I felt the faintest touch of his fangs caressing my skin, just above the spot where my blood pulsed strongest.

His fangs. . .

I didn't care if it was irrational. I didn't care if it was impossible. I just wanted to feel them. I needed them, like I'd never needed anything in my life. In my own mouth, my own teeth began to ache. That delicious, delirious agony of some-thing struggling so hard to be born.

"Sasuke . . . please ..." I bent my head back, exposing my throat to him, longing to wrap my hands around the back of his neck, shove my fingers up into his long, dark hair, and pull those fangs deep into my veins. The longing was so intense that it was pain, too. Pain and pleasure intermingled in the most inconceivably marvelous way possible . . .

"Oh, Saku," he whispered, voice rough in my ear, moving against me, testing my flesh with those razor-sharp incisors. . . .Now . . . now . . . please make it now. . . .

"Excuse me! Hello!"

The image shattered. My eyes popped open, and I was back in the Woodrow Wilson gym, under the red and green streamers, bombarded by too many twinkle lights. We stepped apart abruptly, and Sasuke raked his hand through his black hair, licking his lips, his fangs gone. He seemed genuinely shaken.

"Have you forgotten me completely, silly?" Karin was standing next to us, hands on hips, shaking her head. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were getting a little too close to your housemate here." Her tone was light, but she jabbed a finger at me, and there was anger and disbelief in her eyes. Her expression said, very clearly, "There is no way that you abandoned me for that."

"Sasuke and I were just dancing," I said, voice even, immediately regaining control of myself. I would not panic. I would not be flustered. And I would not act like she was superior to me, or deserved Sasuke more. I turned away from Karin. "I have to find Naruto," I told Sasuke.

"Wait," Sasuke insisted, reaching for me. But Karin intervened, grabbing his hand.

"I'm sure Saku wants to get back to her date. And I'm positive you do, too."

"Jess—"

A scene was brewing. Other couples were starting to stare.

"Thank you for the dance." I smiled, backing away. "He's all yours, Karin."

"Oh, I know that," she said, her own smile as glitteringly frosty as her dress. She swung into Sasuke 's arms, but he pushed her away. He was looking at me. I think there was pity in his eyes. Or apology. Maybe he really just couldn't help himself. Maybe he really was like every teenage boy. Any throat would do in a pinch. Once again, I'd nearly been used—a mistake—just like that day in his apartment. Why was I so powerless to see through him? What hold did he have over me that I fell for him again and again and again?

God, he almost bit my throat. . . .

I met his eyes for a good long time across the dance floor, then I slowly turned my back on Sasuke Uchiha and walked, head high and shoulders back, directly through the crowd. People stepped aside, making way for me. I refused to look back. But I hoped he was watching me. Watching me and realizing that he had made a terrible mistake, abandoning me for Karin.

Pity me? I don't think so. I pity you, Sasuke.

Naruto, of course, was nowhere to be found. I wasn't surprised. I'd completely humiliated us both. Anyone who had paid any attention must have thought Sasuke and I were way too close. We were probably just lucky no one had seen his fangs. I ended up calling my mom for a ride and sat in silence the whole way home, hating vampires. Meddling, heartbreaking, hormone-raging, throat-biting vampires.


	42. Is it over?

"Saku?"

My eyes popped open. I was in my room, lying in bed in the dark, but someone was there. I jolted straight up, rumbling for the light.

Someone else switched it on. I started to scream, but a firm hand over my mouth stopped me, pushing me back down on my pillow.

"Don't scream, please," Sasuke whispered as I wriggled beneath him. I lay still, and he removed his hand. "My apologies for frightening you, and the rough treatment. But I needed to speak with you." For a moment I was almost thrilled to find him in my room. He is here for me. . . . Then all the events of the evening came rushing back. Propping myself up again, I clutched my sheets around my chest. "What do you want?" I spat at him, glancing at the clock. "It's three a.m.!"

"I was unable to sleep after what happened this evening." He sat down on the edge of the bed, uninvited. He was still wearing his tux, but the tie and jacket were gone and the shirt was untucked and rumpled. "I can't rest until we talk." Lifting the sheet, I glanced down at myself, not sure what I'd worn to sleep in. Am I even decent?

"Everything is covered," Sasuke reassured me, the smallest smile on his lips. "Your sleep attire reveals nothing but your insistent love of Arabians."

"You are on such thin ice right now that I can't believe you even tried a joke," I said. "You are so out of line!"

Sasuke's face fell. "Indeed. I made the jest only in hopes of pretending that our relationship had not changed as of this evening."

"You nearly bit me, Sasuke. And then you ran off with Karin. I would definitely say things have changed."

"What I did tonight—what I almost did tonight—it was unforgivable," he agreed, clearly miserable. "Reprehensible. Not only to come so close to biting you, but in public, too. And with Karin—the woman I was accompanying, for god's sake—looking on, no less. I don't know what came over me. I don't even know how to begin to ask for your forgiveness."

Everything about that apology stung. Being close to me was "reprehensible"? It was "unforgivable"? He couldn't imagine "what came over him," finding himself attracted to a disgusting creature like me. Especially since it might have upset his precious priority, Karin.

Sasuke sighed, correctly interpreting my silence. "You despise me even more than usual, don't you?"

"Yes."

"You left. I suppose Naruto was upset."

"We'll all live."

My cold tone seemed to take him aback. "Yes. I suppose we will." He waited. "I thought you would have more to say."

"What do you want me to say, Sasuke?" I intended to stonewall him, but suddenly it all came spilling out.

"You show up on my doorstep, you hound me for months, and when you finally convince me that I'm special—when I finally felt some-thing for you—you turn everything around on me and fall for the same cookie-cutter blond girl every guy likes. You're such a typical guy—"

"You really did, didn't you? Begin to feel something for me?" His voice was bittersweet. More bitter than sweet.

"Felt, Sasuke. Felt. It was just for a moment," I said. My anger drained away, settling into a sullen sadness. "It seems like a bad dream now. A 'mistake,' to use your word. A terrible mistake." Although I was saying these things it was a lie, it was all a lie. I still have feelings for Sasuke Uchiha and that's why I'm jealous. But I won't let him know that. My teeth started to hurt from the pain. I wanted to scream so badly that it hurt. Tears started rolling down my eyes. Sasuke looked at me with awareness. "Sakura what's wrong?"

**LEMON AHEAD LEMON ALERT!:**

My mouth was burning I couldn't reply I just kept pointing at my mouth so he could get the jest. His eyes gleamed and I saw the look in his eyes. All of a sudden I needed him and wanted him it was aching. He smirked and lay down on my bed. "When your fangs are starting to come in you will feel… horny until it's fulfilled to a certain degree, so do what you want to my body until that need go away. By the way I don't usually let the woman dominate but in times like this I will let it slide."

I didn't even stop to blush I immediately pounced on him. I leaned down and pulled him into a hardcore kiss yanking his hair and all. He snaked his hands up my shirt to my small breast. Once his thumbs started rubbing my nipples I leaned back moaning softly. Sasuke squeezed harder pulling me down to his chest. "Moan as much as you want baby, I put a seal on the room so noise could escape."

I nodded my head I stood above him my legs on either side of him and quickly took my shorts and panties off. I laid down on the bed beside him and spreader my legs. He quickly got between my legs and kissed my inner thighs slowly I was going to die. I pulled his hair right into my core. And he went to work. All I remember is Sasuke using his tongue and fingers bringing me to multiple orgasms, which led me to pulling his hair and scratching his back.

**LEMON OVER!**

The want and need went away; my teeth weren't aching no more. All my senses were back to normal and then it hit me. Sasuke SAW ALL OF MY PRIVATES. I looked over at him and he was lying next to me looking at the ceiling. I quickly cover my body from him. He didn't look over but I could see the slight smirk on his face.

"Don't worry I used a jutsu to make me temporally blind so I couldn't see anything until after your need went away." I sighed a little bit but still kept myself covered.

Sasuke pov:

Sakura was blushing to herself while covering up her body, while I just stared at the ceiling. I sighed to myself I wanted at first to fulfill the pack, have a fuck toy, and a mother to my children that was it. But now I actually care about her filling. The old me would have fuck the shit out of her last night and look at her body. But instead I actually took the time to be considerate of her feelings.

Maybe I should cancel this pack Sakura is just too sweet to be married to an Uchiha and I can't teach her our ways It would corrupt her. I guess I've made a decision

I rubbed tired eyes. "Oh, Saku. . . Do not think you know the whole truth about anything I do or say," I said cryptically. "Sometimes . . . sometimes I do not even know myself. If I seem inconsistent, it is only me struggling with myself."

I leaned forward, wringing my hands. "Damn, I've made a mess of everything."

"Yeah. I guess so." She quietly replied not knowing where I was getting at.

"You will never understand how it is to be seduced by the normal."She nearly snorted. "You? Normal?"

"Yes, me. Normal."

"The last thing you've ever cared about is being normal."

"No, Saku. That is not entirely true. Not lately." I rose and began pacing her small room, talking softly, almost to myself. "You have no idea what it was like, being raised in solitude. Being raised for a purpose. Your parents, Saku, they have no agenda for you. You are not their tool. You simply exist to be loved by them. Do you know how foreign that is to me?"

she watched me pace, not sure what to say. Not wanting to interrupt me.

i paused and smiled at her, a sad smile. "I came here and suddenly, there was a whole new world. Our classmates. They're allowed to be so . . . so frivolous."

"You hate frivolity."

"But frivolity is so easy." The smile faded. "I used to think American teenagers so ridiculously self-absorbed. But it's addictive, for lack of a better word. I find myself drawn to your world, if only for a brief time. It is like a fleeting holiday to be among you. The first holiday of my life. If one discounts the pressures inherent in fulfilling the pact, there are no expectations for me, beyond making a three-point shot just before the buzzer."

"Sasuke, what are you trying to say?"

I sank back down on the bed. "I find that I am reluctant to give all of that up quite yet."

"Give all of what up?"

"The dances with the cheap crepe paper. The jeans. The basketball. Being with a young woman without the weight of generations upon my shoulders, watching ..."

"Karin. You don't want to give up Karin." She said angrily I could hear the hurt and pain and regret in her voice.

I reared back. "For a girl who blocked my every attempt at courting, you are suddenly rather proprietary."

"You're the one who kept talking about how important it was for us to get married, for crying out loud."

I raked my fingers through my ebony hair. "If I had bitten you tonight. . . there would have been no turning back. You know that, don't you? Eternity. Those are the stakes when we are together. Eternity. Are you ready for that? And Saku, a partnership with me . . . that is something you should not desire. Eternity may come more quickly than you anticipated if you are joined to me."

"I don't understand."

I took my hand, lacing our fingers together. "And that, Sakura Haruno is precisely why I have set you free."

"What?"

"I have dissolved the pact."

"For Karin," she repeated, pulling my hand away_. I hated the jealousy that tore at me like a physical force._ I heard her say in her head.

Sakura Pov:

"You want to bite Karin. That's what this is all about."

He shook his head. "No. I would not bite Karin. Although I am not sure if I am reluctant to foist vampiredom on Karin—or to unleash Karin upon vampiredom."

I didn't believe him. I knew he wanted Karin. "Sasuke, under the pact, you have to bite me. We're pledged to each other. If you don't, you violate the treaty, and the war will start..."

"I'm trying to tell you, Saku. The pact is no longer in effect."

There was finality in his voice that frightened me, and my jealousy was replaced by an even sicker, stronger trepidation. "What exactly did you do, Sasuke?"

"I have written to the Elders. I have advised them that I will not participate in this ridiculous game anymore."

"You what?" It came out almost as a shout. "You what?" I repeated more softly.

There was a flicker of fear, but also determination, in Sasuke's eyes. "I have written to my Uncle Madara. I have called off the entire affair."

"I thought you couldn't do that."

"And yet I did it."

My trepidation intensified to dread, which prickled up the back of my neck. The last thing I'd ever expected to see on Sasuke's face was fear, even the smallest hint, and I knew he was in deep, deep trouble. "What will happen?"

"I don't know," Sasuke admitted. "But you will be safe. You must not worry. I am the one who made the decision. They will not harm you." He took my hand again, and I allowed him to entangle our fingers.

"If it costs me my existence, Sakura, you will be safe. I owe you that much, for reasons you will never need to know or understand."

Real terror clutched at me, and I gripped his fingers. "What is going to happen, Sasuke?"

"That's not your concern."

"Sasuke ..." I thought of the terrible scar on his arm. Of his words_. "Of course they hit me. Time and again. They were making a warrior. . . ."_"Will they punish you?"

He laughed harshly. "Oh, Saku. Punishment is hardly the word for what I face at the hands of the Elders."

"We could try to reason with them . . .," I said, knowing I was grasping futilely at straws.

Sasuke smiled at me, and there was tenderness in it. "You have a kind heart, and you are blessed with a sometimes dangerous naiveté. But the world is full of creatures like my poor, doomed Hell's Belle. And me. Creatures that've seen monstrous things and become monsters themselves. Creatures who perhaps should be put down."

"Stop it, Sasuke," I demanded. "Stop talking like that!"

"It is true, Sakura. You can't even conceive of the things in my dreams and schemes and imaginings . . ."

I swallowed hard. "Is that what you meant on Halloween when you said you could show me 'not-nice things'?"

Sasuke's fingers tightened around mine. "Oh, no, Sakura. Not violence against you. No matter what you believe of me—what you recall of me in the future—please believe that in the end, I would not—could not—have hurt you. Perhaps there was a time before I knew you, if you had stood in my path to power . . . but not now." He hesitated and looked away, and I heard him mutter, "God, I hope not. . ."

"It's okay, Sasuke ," I soothed him. "I know you wouldn't hurt me." Still, his admission unnerved me. Was there a time when he could have hurt me? Why did he add that caveat at the end. . . ?

But Sasuke wasn't listening to me. He was staring at the pink walls he so hated. "For my family—for my children—it could have been different. I really have seen a new way here, for all the times I mock this place and its conventions."

"What if you just stayed here?" I suggested, growing suddenly hopeful. "You could just live like a regular person . . ."

As soon as I blurted the words, I realized how foolish they sounded. Still, Lucius surprised me by saying, "Perhaps for a few more weeks, if I am fortunate."

"Or longer?"

"No. Not longer. I know where I belong, and it would eventually pull me back." Sasuke disentangled our fingers, standing. "The important thing is, you know that you are liberated from the pact. Absolved. You are free to . . . well..." A touch of his mocking laughter crept back into his voice. "Free to do whatever it is that you intend to do with your life. College. Some sort of split-level house in the suburbs. Little fair-haired, agriculturally inclined children running around in the yard. Your fate is your own. I promise you that."

"What if I don't want those things anymore?"

"Trust me, Sakura someday you will look back upon these few months as nothing more than a strange dream. A potential nightmare. And you will be very, very happy that it never came true."

Sasuke kissed the top of my head, then, and I knew that the weight of our shared destiny would never be lifted from his shoulders. He could play at being a normal teenager, but it was just a short reprieve.

Sasuke Uchiha fate was tied up in scrolls and bound in genealogies and meted out with fists or worse.

And I shuddered for him.

I heard his footsteps move toward the door in the darkness, but he paused before leaving. "You really were the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen tonight," he said softly. "When I danced with you .. . and the sight of you leaving me, head held high, not looking back, as the crowd parted before you ... No matter where you live or whom you choose to wed, Sakura, you will always be royalty. And I will always recall the image of you this evening, just as I will always remember the way you wept for me as I lay broken downstairs. Those are two gifts you have given me, and I will carry them with me, for as long as I am able."

Sasuke shut the door behind himself, then, and in spite of the sweetness and warmth of his words, I shivered in the darkness.


	43. The meeting

IT TOOK LESS THAN a week for all hell to break loose after Sasuke's letter made its way to the countryside outside of Sighisoara, Romania.

In the meantime, Sasuke sucked deeply on typical American teenage life like it was a rich, red vein. He played hours and hours of pickup basketball, skipped school, and threw a party in his garage apartment that ended in a raid by the cops and a threat from my parents to deport him on the next flight to Bucharest. Karin was constantly clamped to his side like they'd been super-glued at the hip.

And then Sasuke, Mom, Dad, and I were all summoned to a meeting of the Elders, to be held in Lebanon County. They were all deigning to meet here, so serious was the crisis. There was no choice but to attend. At least, it didn't seem like there was a choice.

"I can't believe they are meeting in a steak house," my mother complained, reluctantly entering the Western Sizzlin' on New Year's Eve at the appointed time. "It's like a slap in the face. They know we're vegans."

"It's a power play," Dad agreed.

"Please, just go along with it," I begged. I sensed that things were going to be bad enough without Mom and Dad worrying about the menu. "They have a salad bar."

"Sulfites." My father sniffed. "Preservatives."

Sometimes Dad missed the big picture.

"We're here for a meeting," Mom told the hostess.

"With a bunch of older .. . men," I added. "They said they reserved a room."

Fear as raw as the steak in one of their freezers crossed the hostess's face, but she managed a smile as she located three menus. "Come this way, please."

"Oh, shit." I couldn't help saying it as we entered the room.

My mom clutched my hand. "It's all right, Saku." But it didn't look "all right" at all.

For in the middle of a paneled chamber merrily festooned with cardboard cutouts of, thirteen of the most funereal old guys I'd ever seen were hovering over a circular table, stabbing at a massive platter loaded down with bloody, barely seared steaks. They were slapping bright red cow flesh onto their plates and not eating the meat. Just. .. slurping. At the juice.

The blood that seeped out. Although the heat was cranked in that restaurant, the air was cold with their presence. And the smell of the blood ... it prickled at my nostrils, seeped in through my pores, tickled my stomach.

My parents clutched their own stomachs, and my dad started gagging a little into his fist.

The oldest, scariest vampire glanced up from his feast reluctantly. He gestured to three empty chairs.

"Please, sit. And forgive us for starting without you. We are famished from the journey."

Madara .He had to be Sasuke's uncle Vasile. There was the vaguest resemblance in the facial features, and the same sense of controlled power. But the older Uchiha vampire lacked Sasuke's charm and grace and the wonderful glimmer of mischief in his eyes. Indeed, Madara was like a tormented, deformed version of his nephew. Whereas Sasuke's power was beautiful to witness, tempered as it was with humor and even joy,

"Sit," Madara ordered again. Even the arrogance—which had become one of Sasuke's most endearing traits—sat all wrong on the uncle's hunched shoulders. Still, we obeyed and sat. The hostess handed us menus. She looked at us with pity, like we were hostages.

"Will you be having . . . ?" She gestured toward the meat pile, clearly not certain what to say. "Or should I get a waitress?"

"Just three salad bars," Mom ordered for us all, handing back her menu. I could tell she was struggling to maintain her composure in the face of the carnage.

I glanced around the table.

There was one empty chair. I wondered if Lucius would even show. And then the door opened, and he entered. I had half expected him to wear his old clothes—the velvet coat and black pants—but he wore jeans and his Grantley sweatshirt. I kind of sensed he was drawing a line in the sand early. A defiant line.

But he moved around the table, politely shaking hands, one by one. "Uncle Madara. Uncle Obito."

Each vampire would pause in his consumption of blood just long enough to shake hands before falling back upon the feast. Sasuke sat down, winking at us. But I could tell he was nervous.

"He's scared of them," Mom whispered in my ear.

"Me, too," I agreed. "Do you recognize any of them from Romania?"

Mom nodded, just slightly. "I seem to recall one or two . . . but it was long ago."

"Eat," Madara urged, jabbing his fork toward us. "Then we'll talk."

My parents decamped for the salad bar, and I followed. But not without looking back over my shoulder at those steaks with more than a little awful desire. The odor of the blood ... it was so heady in there. In spite of my fears for Sasuke—and for all of us, really—that smell drew me. I felt guilty, feeling desire at such a dreadful moment.

When we returned, it was quite obvious that we had interrupted an intense, if quiet, discussion. The platter was heaped with sucked-dry steaks, the individual plates pushed away. All heads were turned toward Sasuke, who sat stock-still. His eyes darted toward us. "Must the Haru's be here?"

We stood clutching our salad bowls, waiting for the verdict. I don't know what we would have done if Madara had told us to leave. But he didn't.

"Yes," he said. "They must remain."

We put our bowls at our place settings, and the sound of their thumping echoed in the suddenly silent room. Pulling out our chairs, we sat.

"Eat," Madara directed again.

Even the salad dressing seemed to stick in my throat, so I took a few token bites and pushed my bowl away.

The vampire on my right leaned toward me. No longer hunched over a bloody steak, he could have been any businessman out for dinner. And yet, there was something different about him. Something menacing in his eyes. So these are the Elders. . . . "Are you not hungry?" he asked in a thickly accented voice.

"No," I said, forcing myself to meet his black eyes. I would not flinch or show fear. Are these really my people? My kind?

"They are done," Madara announced, standing, after my parents had pushed their bowls away, too. "I will do the introductions."

He went around the table, but I immediately forgot all the names. I was too busy watching Sasuke. He looked like a condemned man waiting for the electric chair in the company of his executioners and wouldn't meet my gaze.

Madara sat, folding his long body into the chair like some sort of human accordion. He tented skeletal, knobby fingers, tapping the fingertips together. "What are we to do with these young people?"

"Not young people," Sasuke interrupted. "Just me. This is about me."

"Silence," Madara hissed, head swiveling toward Lucius.

"Of course, sir," Sasuke conceded.

Madara glared at my parents. "You know that Sasuke has decided, in some sort of fit of independence" —he spat the word— "that he will no longer abide by the pact."

We all nodded.

"Sasuke has advised of us of his decision," Dad spoke up. "And we support his choice. He is also invited to stay with us for as long as he wants."

"You 'support his choice'?" Madara thundered, incredulous. "You support his insubordination?"

"Look, Madara," my father began. His voice cracked, and he had some spinach stuck in his teeth, but I was proud of him nonetheless. "They're just kids."

"I don't know that term," Madara said. My dad spoke up again "Kids. Young people. Teenagers. Why not just let them be. . ." Madara pounded the table, and a few dry steaks tumbled off the pile. "Let them be?"

My mom laid a hand on my arm. "Yes," she added, bravely. "If Sasuke has decided that he wants out of the pact. . . Well, it was all very long ago, and he's a young man. You must see that it was ridiculous to expect these two teenagers to fall in love and marry just because of a decree."

I glanced toward Sasuke. His eyes were on Madara.

"Love?" Madara barked. "Who said anything about love? This is about power."

"It's about kids," my father contradicted. "Lucius is seeing a young woman, and Jess is getting ready for college . . ."

Clearly, my dad had spilled a ton of beans. At the phrase "seeing a young woman," Madara popped out of his chair and spun around on Sasuke like a snapped whip. Sasuke flinched, as if the whip had caught him a good one across the cheek.

"Courting?" Madara roared. "Outside of the pact?"

"It's my choice," Sasuke said calmly, using his favorite new word. "Saku was amenable to the pact, but I have chosen otherwise."

Somehow, even though I knew he was protecting me, the words stung. Still Sasuke didn't look at me.

At some silent cue that I missed completely, four senior vampires rose and the next thing I knew, Sasuke was standing, being ushered away. One of the older vampires had draped his arm around his younger relative's shoulders, but I knew that Sasuke was not about to get a kindly lecture from a well-meaning uncle.

"Where are you taking him?" Mom demanded.

"It's fine, Dr. Haru," Sasuke reassured her. He shook off his relative's containing arm, as though he preferred to go to his doom with dignity. "Please. Don't become involved in a family affair."

"Sasuke, wait," I cried, rising from my chair.

He turned to me, just for a second. "No, Saku." A huge lump clogged my throat as they grabbed him again and shoved him toward the door. Four against one. . . cowards. I tried to follow him, but Mom pulled me back. "I don't think so, Saku. Not now."

"Sit down, please, "Madara added, voice oily. "Even if you were to follow . . . well, you couldn't find him.

He is perfectly safe with the family."

"I think we should go," Dad said, rising. My mom and I followed his lead.

"This is not over," Vasile said, pointing a skeletal finger at all three of us. "Sasuke will return with a different mind-set. And you will not go back on your promise."

Mom bristled. "My daughter will not do anything against her will."

"Her will is to marry him. She is destined for him. She knows it. To use your parlance, she loves him."

Dad looked at me. "What is he talking about, Saku?" "I don't know," I stammered.

"I saw her, when Sasuke was led away." Madara laughed. "Being raised among humans has made her so transparent."

"We're leaving." Dad grabbed my arm.

"Good night, for now," Madara said. He bowed slightly to me.

As we made our way past the vampire clan, edging around the circle of the table, I felt something pressed into my palm. The move was so quick; it was like a magic trick. Somehow I had the good sense not to yelp. Glancing back, I caught the eye of a vampire I hadn't really noticed before. He was a little heavier than the others, and a little shorter, and his skin was a shade pinker. His eyes harbored a hint of amusement, and when I met his gaze, he placed a finger to his lips, clearly signaling that we now shared some secret, and winked at me. I didn't wink back.

I held on to the slip of paper until I got all the way to my bedroom, and opened it with fingers that fumbled with impatience. It was a note:

DON'T LOOK SO SCARED YET. ALL IS NOT LOST. YOU SEEM LIKE, A NICE GIRL.

MADARA IS JUST OVERBEARING. ALWAYS FULL OF HIMSELF. MEET ME TOMORROW AT THAT NICEPARK WITH THE STREAM. SAY TENISH? I'LL BE IN THE GAZEBO. AND LET'S KEEP THIS BETWEEN OUR-SELVES, EH?

YOURS, ZABU


	44. Meeting Zabu

Chapter 44

I APPROACHED THE GAZEBO in the park at "tenish," as the note had advised, and the vampire waiting there waved, clutching his coat around his throat with his other hand. It was a bitterly cold day, with the threat of snow.

"I was afraid you wouldn't come," he said, smiling.

In spite of the smile, I approached warily. "Sasuke said you'd all gone home."

"Indeed," he confirmed. "The rest have already returned to Romania. I linger behind in hopes of helping the situation." I relaxed a little, glad to hear that most of Sasuke s uncles had departed. The farther away, the better.

"I'm Zabu," he added, holding out a gloved hand. Actually, it was a mittened hand. He must have seen me staring at the bright wool. Yellow and orange stripes. "Nifty, huh?" he said, flipping his hands back and forth. "I got them at the mall."

I shook his hand. "You shopped at the mall?"

"Oh, sure. American culture. It's all about the fun here. I was so jealous when Lucius was dispatched here for several months' stay. Of course, it was good to get him away from old Madara for a while." He sucked in his cheeks, making them cadaverous, in imitation. "Seemed a healthy move."

I studied Madara's face. His cheeks were rosy in the cold, and his eyes were black, like I'd come to expect from vampires, but they had a merry little crinkle around the edges. "Sit, sit," he said, gesturing to a bench, brushing off a dusting of snow. The seat still didn't look very inviting. "Do you think we could go to a coffee shop or something?" I suggested, blowing on my hands. I cast a longing glance at his mittens.

Zabu mused on this, head waggling back and forth. "Sure. Why not? I suppose I got a little cloak-and-dagger with the whole empty park. I'm a fan of the spy novel, you know."

"Me, too," I said, smiling.

"Well, I'm not surprised," he said, ushering me out of the gazebo. "Being related and all. We probably have lots in common."

"We're related?"

"Yes, yes. I should have put that in the note. Less scary for you then, maybe."

"How?"

"I'm your uncle," he informed me. "Your mother's brother."

I stopped short and stared at him, searching for anything familiar in his face. Any resemblance to my birth mother or me. "You don't look quite like her ... or me."

Zabu's rosy cheeks blanched a little. "Well, I'm more of a half-brother, really. Your grandfather had a dalliance out of wedlock . . ." He grinned sheepishly. "I'm the product!"

"But you can tell me about my birth parents, right?"

"Of course, of course," he promised. "But first, let's get you inside. You're shivering."

Yes, I was. From the cold and from anticipation. The vampire at my side was my uncle. He had known my birth parents. . . . Finally, after nearly eighteen years, I was about to learn who they really were.

Finally I was ready.

Zabu offered me his arm, and I tucked my hand in the crook of his elbow. "Come along then, Sakura. We have much to discuss."

Together we strolled across the frozen park toward The Bean Counter, the closest coffee shop. Zabu paused before entering, reading the sign. A smile broke across his face. "I get it. I really do. Funny stuff. Americans and their puns. In Bucharest, it would be called 'Coffee Shop.' The communists messed up everything."

We ordered—decaf for me and a double latte with whipped cream and sprinkles for Zabu—and took our drinks to a corner table. Zabu sucked off the cream like it was blood from a steak. "Before we get on to family stories," he began, "that was bad stuff back there last night, eh?" He dabbed at his foam mustache with a napkin. "But that's Zabu for you. Loves drama more than a common villager. Everything's about staging."

My initial warm feelings for my uncle frosted over. "So what happened to Lucius, that was just for some sort of effect? Because his broken nose looked awfully real."

Zabu paused in mid sip, lowering his mug. "No? Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh, goodness. I thought they were beyond all that. Not good. Not good, indeed. I never thought they'd really lay a hand on him again. Never thought they'd have the nerve to fight that one. Wouldn't risk it, myself."

"It was four against one," I reminded him.

"Still." Zabu appeared to be weighing the odds. "I wouldn't risk it. How is the boy? How did he fare?"

How could I put it into words?

"That bad, eh?" Zabu looked honestly pained. "Madara never had much interest in children. But Lucius turned out well, in spite, didn't he? He's a fine young man. Outstanding vampire. The whole Uchiha clan is justifiably proud. Of course, it's not surprising that Sasuke would rebel, given the tight rein Madara kept on him growing up."

I traced the rim of my mug with my finger. "What's going to happen to Sasuke?"

"Well, that letter surprised all the Elders. We thought you'd be the one who might be difficult to draw in, in spite of the pact. Americans: not so much on blood pacts. More of a European thing. I tried to point that out. No one listens to me, though. They were fairly certain you'd come around."

"That I'd 'come around'?"

"Well, look at Sasuke. We just assumed he'd make any teenage girl swoon. He's very popular in Bucharest among certain debutantes who enjoy the dark side ..."

I didn't want to hear about Sasuke's old conquests. "So you figured eventually I'd fall for him, and he'd put up with whatever he got."

Zabu cocked his head, considering. "Yes. I guess that's about it. And you did fall, didn't you? You do love him, right?"

I flushed. "I don't know about love. .." _I like Sasuke a lot but can I trust another guy, what if he hurts me?_

"We all saw how you looked at Sasuke. And Madara, for all his faults, is very adept at reading other vampires' thoughts. Better than most. He's so damn old. What skill hasn't he perfected?"

"Wait vampires can read minds! And I'm not a vampire yet," I corrected.

"Only the best of the best can read minds and mothers can read their children minds. But back to the topic you do thirst, no?" Zabu asked, hopeful. "By now, you must. . ."

I glanced around the coffee shop, making sure it was empty. "Yes," I confessed, whispering so the barista behind the counter wouldn't hear. "Sometimes."

Zabu nodded approval. "You have much to look forward to, Sakura. Your first taste of Siberian Red—especially Type O, vintage 1972 . . ." His gaze drifted off, and he smacked his lips. "Oh, it's something else. Indeed it is."

"Not if I never become a full vampire. Not if I'm never bitten."

Zabu came back around. "Oh, yes, the pact. And our way-ward boy, Sasuke. We—meaning you—must be the one to bring him around and ensure that the pact is fulfilled."

"How can I do that?"

"You love him. You can bring him back to his senses. It's fairly simple, really."

"It's not simple at all. Sasuke is done with the pact. And he's got this girlfriend ..."

"Sasuke is rebelling. He's being a teenager. He'll come back. He'll come back to you. "

I finished my coffee. "You are so wrong." Zabu hadn't seen how Sasuke was with me now. At breakfast, he'd been completely aloof. Entirely shut off. Something had happened with him when they'd beaten him.

The laugh, the sarcasm, the light-ness . . . they were all gone. Snuffed. Sasuke was different now. Intense.

Frightening.

"We need to try," Sasuke said. I wondered if he could read my mind, like Madara. "You can do it. You are Mebuki Haruno daughter. And damn, that woman could do anything she put her mind to."

Across the table, my uncle squinted at me.

"What?"

"Certain ways I look at you, you look exactly like her. Spitting image, to use the disgusting English colloquialism." He shook his head, sighing. "Beautiful, such a beautiful woman. Such a waste."

"Zabu, why can't you take over as leader of our clan?" I suggested. "You're an Elder. Can't you fix this mess for us? Change the pact somehow?"

"I told you. My blood isn't pure. You are the last pure Haruno heir to the throne. It has to be you. We are all counting on you. Counting on the blood that runs in your veins. Your mother, Mebuki—she was leadership material. Same with your father. Very kingly, that one. You are pure stock. Pure stock, indeed."

"If the pact isn't fulfilled, would there really be war?"

"The Haruno's and the Uchiha's already grow impatient. There are rumblings of distrust on both sides. Your marriage is intended to provide stability—to make sure power is equally shared between clans that have battled for generations, fighting for supremacy. But as rumors that the pact may not be fulfilled begin to spread, the old instability reasserts itself stronger than ever. Already, the situation grows volatile."

"Could vampires actually die?"

"Vampires don't die," Zabu pointed out. "But they can be destroyed—and that is much worse than death. To answer your question, though. Yes. Vampires would be destroyed. The old war, which halted with your betrothal to Sasuke, would resume."

An actual war. Over me.

"Your parents achieved the first peace," Zabu pointed out. "You will achieve the lasting one."

"Tell me about them," I urged Zabu. "I want to hear everything."

He smiled broadly, warmly, and signaled to the barista at the counter. "I think we'll need a whole pot over here." He turned back to me. "There is so, so much to tell, my future princess."


	45. The Breakup

**WARNING RAPE SCENE IN THIS CHAPTER,**

"WHAT ARE YOU doing here?" Naruto asked, looking unhappy to see me waiting by his locker.

I stepped aside so he could spin the combination. It seemed like ages ago that I'd seen him struggling with the lock on the first day of school. So much had happened since then.

"I wanted to see you," I said. "To talk about what happened at the formal."

"You made me look like an idiot." Naruto snapped open the door, banging it against the other lockers.

"I was the one who looked awful," I said. "I was the one who—"

"You don't have to describe it," Naruto said, shoving his books into the locker. "I saw you and Sasuke. I was there—in case you forgot like you did that night."

"I deserved that," I admitted. "And I just want to say I'm sorry."

"Why did you even want to go with me?" Naruto asked. "Was I a consolation prize, since Sasuke asked Karin? Because he might have had his hands all over you at the formal, but it seems to me like he has a girlfriend."

Naruto wanted to hurt me, and he had. Then again, I'd hurt him. "Naruto, you're nobody's consolation prize," I promised. "You're one of the nicest guys I know, and I wish I hadn't treated you like I did."

"Yeah, me, too," Naruto said, slamming the locker shut. "But don't feel sorry for me, Jess. I'm the one who feels sorry for you, because that guy might be a hotshot from Europe, but he'll never treat you as nice as I would have."

The sad thing was, I knew Jake was right. "Nice" was not in Sasuke Uchiha vocabulary. Intense. Chivalrous. Funny. Arrogant. Dangerous. Honorable. Passionate. Those were the words that Lucius lived by. But nice? Never.

"I see how you look at him," Naruto added. "Hell, I knew we were going to break up that day you came to wrestling practice. You weren't watching me. You were watching him."

I had nothing to say. No way to defend myself.

"He's gonna to break your heart, Saku. That guy is gonna destroy you." All of a sudden I was angry. "First of all Naruto you have no right to speak of Sasuke that way, when Kiba was making fun of me and making rude comments you just stood there while Sasuke defended me!" He looked me and all of a sudden fear hit me.

It was just the two of us in the hall way everybody went home. He could do anything he wanted and I would be helpless.

* * *

><p><strong>RAPE SCENE AHEAD: WARNING SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ YOU HAVE BEEN WARN TWICE!<strong>

He walk closer to me putting his hand around my neck. "You listen here whore." He whispered in my ear. "I've heard of the things you and Sasuke did in the his little apartment maybe you want to show me?" _"There's rumors about me and Sasuke? Is Naruto really going to rape me?" _Tears started rolling down my face. Naruto sucked on my skin I kicked and tried to move but the wrestler had me stuck. He pulled my shirt up and my pink polka dot bra down. And sucked on my nipples.

"_This is it I'll just think of Sasuke-kun." _

He started to unbutton my jeans and let my hands go seeing I wasn't going to fight no more. Once my jeans were off he ripped my panties and immediately stuck three digits inside of me. I screamed at the pain. He smirked and kissed my mouth, making my screams go away.

He continued to rub my nipples and make out with me, while fingering me. "I'm going to make this painful as possible." He turned me around and slammed me into the locker and spread my ass cheeks apart, realization hit me hard knowing what he was about to do.

"Naruto please don't, I'm sorry if I broke your hurt and hurt your feelings please don't d-"Before I could even finish my sentence he slammed into my butt making me scream loudly. He put his hand over my mouth and pulled my long pink hair at the same time while ramming his whole length in me. "Scream my name whore!" he yelled while going at it faster. I was going to but I decide not to give him that satisfaction.

"Oh Sasuke- Kun! Sasuke-kun!" I kept saying that without caring what he would do next. You little whore." He said pulling my hair. He stopped his motions and pulled out me. He forcibly made me kneel to the ground and forced his length in me. I closed my eyes so I didn't have to see his penis, luckily he didn't make me open my eyes. "Yeah suck it whore can't scream his name now."

I gagged on his length waiting for it all to end. A couple seconds later he came in my mouth, on my face and chest. My eyes were still close as I heard him zip up his pants.

**RAPE SCENE OVER**

* * *

><p>He pulled me by my hair and begin to slap me across the face. "Can't believe I liked a whore like you." He laughed softly to himself. He slanged me against the locker and kicked me in the stomach. Throughout the abuse I could feel bruises forming and all kind of pain from all over my body. I imagined I wasn't there but, somewhere with Sasuke where he treated me like a princess I wasn't being mental or physically abuse.<p>

When Naruto was finish he just left me there. I had bruises on my stomach and back mostly. I had a bruise on my cheek, and my lip was swollen and bleeding. Everything else was fine so I could just play of as if I just ran into something and then always make sure my back and stomach Is cover.

* * *

><p>When I got home everybody was eating dinner, my mom and dad were talking while Sasuke just played around with the food on his plate. When I sat at my spot at the kitchen table everybody looked at me except Sasuke. My mother was about to say something to me until she saw my face. She immediately got up to examine it.<p>

"Sakura sweetheart what happen to your face?" _Here comes the lie. _I thought to myself and Sasuke looked up at me eyes narrowing. "I was looking down looking at my math worksheet while walking and ran into a door." Mom looked at my cheek and lip some more before going to her bathroom to get some special ointments.

My dad laughed calling me clumsy. I gave him a fake smile and looked over at Sasuke, who was looking at me as if he knew I was lying.


	46. Is the Truth Out?

The warm water hit the back of my neck as I sat at the bottom of my shower, with my knees pulled up to my chest and my head lying on my knees. I was tired from crying and trying to rub the pain away. _Why does this keep happening to me? Why do I have to keep getting hurt?_

I sat up feeling the water going from hot to warm knowing it will eventual become cold. I grabbed my towel from the rail and dried off while looking in the mirror. My scars were black and blue. I applied the ointment that my mom gave me hoping it will all go away. I comb my hair and pulled it into a bun.

I laid on my bed put on my earphones and listen to Sparks by Coldplay. About an hour later my mom came in and sat two coffee mugs on my dresser telling me to take one to Sasuke.

"SASUKE, I BROUGHT you some hot chocolate." I poked my head into his new room, carrying a tray.

"It's the vegan kind, but not too bad."

He was lying flat on his back on his makeshift bed, which was an air mattress on the floor, his eyes closed, listening to headphones. The desk lamp provided the only light in the room, casting shadows all around him. I took a second to study him before he realized I was there and turned away, like he always did now. His bruises had healed some, and the swelling around his eye had gone down. I set down the tray and tapped his shoulder.

He started, tearing off the headphones and bolting upright. "Don't startle me like that. Don't you know that's unwise? Don't you know by now?"

"Sorry." I stepped backwards flinching, seeing how flinty his eyes were. "I just made some hot chocolate, and I thought—

"I don't like chocolate."

"You just finished another carton of Dad's carob tofu ice cream," I said. "So don't pretend you don't like chocolate. Just have some."

Sasuke pushed my hand away, spilling some on the floor. "Saku, it's late. Go to bed." I ignored him and sat down cross-legged next to him, sipping the cocoa. "What are you listening to?"

"German metal. Richthofen."

Setting down the mug, I waved for the headphones. "Can I listen, please?"

He ground his teeth, but agreed. "As you wish."

Clamping the headphones over my ears, my heart sank. It sounded like elevator music for tormented souls on the way to hell. Guttural German lyrics, synthesizers growling, no melody. Just howling and groaning. Scary stuff. "What happened to the Black Eyed Peas?" I made an effort at a joke, removing the headphones.

"I find this is more in tune with my psyche."

"Sasuke—"

"Saku, go."

"Stop pushing me away."

"Stop trying to pull me close!"

I hugged my knees to my chest. "I'm worried about you."

"The time for worry is past."

"No, that's not true. We can still fix things."

"Saku, in a few weeks, I will return to Romania to face the punishment for my defiance. Just leave me in peace for a short time. The time I have left. That's all I ask."

"But Sasuke, I want to help you."

He laughed, a short, bitter laugh. "You? You want to help me? Your hiding something from all of us and you come home with bruises, but you want to help me?"

"It's not funny. I can help you. I might be the only person who can help you."

"How?"

"I can marry you, that's how."

His eyes softened for just a second, and then he rubbed them with his palms, grinding against the bruises, as if he was punishing himself. "Saku. .."

I leaned forward, taking advantage, grabbing his hand. "We could do it. I would do it."

Sasuke yanked his hand away. "You don't even know what you offer, Saku. All you know is that you feel sorry for me. I will not be married out of pity. To be saved like an ailing mongrel about to be euthanized who is adopted at the pound by some too-kind soul. I would rather be destroyed with dignity."

"I don't pity you."

"No?"

"No." Tears pricked at my eyes. "I love you, Sasuke."

I couldn't believe the words had slipped out of my mouth. I had always thought the first time I said them, the moment would be perfect. Not desperate and sick, like this.

There was a long silence, and Sasuke's eyes grew hard again.

"Mores the pity, Saku," he replied. Then he lay back down, rolling onto his side, as if to sleep. "Goodnight Sasuke-kun.

"OH, DAMMIT, I muttered, watching out my window as Sasuke and Karin crept across the yard under cover of darkness, headed toward his old apartment. I hated spying on him, but I didn't know what else to do. I had to keep him from biting Karin. And so I waited just a few minutes and followed them.

"Hey, you guys," I said, barging in without knocking. "What are you up to?"

As if I can't tell.

Karin practically leapt away from Lucius, smoothing at her hair, tugging at her disheveled shirt. "God, Saku. Don't you knock? Some people have sex lives."

Sasuke didn't make any effort to disentangle himself. He just sat there on the bed, keeping his arm loosely around Faith's waist, idly stroking her hip. "What do you want, Saku?" His voice was low, menacing.

"Maybe she wants her pots and pans, "Karin smirked. "You know, to do her hair."

"I can't smell the hare anymore," I shot back. "The stench of peroxide is so strong. You'd better ease up on the bleach, Karin, or you'll wind up bald."

"I could do worse." She sniffed, staring pointedly at my head. "Better bald than a Brillo head."

"Better a Brillo head than a bitch."

I don't think anyone had ever spoken to Karin like that. I could hardly believe I'd done it. But damn, it felt good. Karin sat in stunned silence, curled up against Sasuke, eyes wide. Then she pulled away from him, jabbing her finger at his chest. "Did you hear what she just said to me, Sasu? Are you going to let her call me a bitch?"

Sasuke laughed, a mirthless sound, and drew her closer. "Oh, Karin. Accept the compliment."

She shoved his chest. "Watch it, Sasuke." Sasuke ignored the warning, addressing me. "I repeat: What do you want, Saku?"

"I need some help with Belle in the barn," I said remembering why I bother coming in here. "Something's wrong with her she won't eat or standup and mom and dad are out of town again. I'm scared my eyes started to blur from my tears."

"Call a veterinarian," Sasuke said. "I'm no horse healer."

"Come on, Sasuke," I urged. "It will just take a minute.".

She left the door hanging open, and I slammed it as she marched down the stairs.

"What do you see in her?" I demanded of Sasuke. My voice was petulant, too angry, but I couldn't control myself. "She's the most evil person I've ever known."

"You know worse, Saku. Trust me." Sasuke stood, crossing his arms. "Why are you really here?"

"To save you, you idiot," I said. "You are going to bite Karin! You're totally out of control!"

Sasuke groaned. A groan that spiked to a growl. He balled his fists and ground them against his forehead. "Saku—do not meddle in this."

"Even if you don't care about me, or yourself, or the pact, have you thought about what will happen to Karin if you two get carried away? You're messing around with her soul, too. I might hate her, but what you're doing—it's not right."

Sasuke scoffed. "Karin's soul. Karin is already as corrupt a soul as you can imagine. Don't worry about Karin. She lies, cheats, steals, and would probably kill to get what she wants. I've seen into Karin's soul, and it's just as dark as mine. That's why we're so good together. We are one and the same."

But they weren't one and the same. I knew it. "You can't base your life on a novel," I said.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's not Catherine, and you're not Heathcliff. You don't have to destroy each other."

"You read too much into a small drama. A high school diversion," Sasuke said.

"You don't think it's a diversion. I know you, Sasuke."

"You do not know me!"

The rafters fairly shook as Lucius really raised his voice, for the first time I could recall. The sound was fearsome. But I would not back down. "I do know you. You are an honorable vampire. You are royally. And Karin is not your equal," I shot back. "She's not even a vampire."

"Oh, neither are you." He drew closer and clutched a fistful of my curls. "You've changed your hair, you've changed your clothes, you've read the guide, but you don't know anything about being a vampire.

You saw my uncles. Are you ready for that world?"

"I was born to rule that world. You know it! You taught me that!" But Sasuke laughed at me, releasing my hair. "Indeed? You can barely utter the words, let alone take the throne."

"You're just hurt, Sasuke," I pleaded. "Don't throw away your"— Life? Undeath? —"existence over a fight with your uncle."

"Get out." He bared his teeth like an animal, breathing heavily, and I saw his fangs.

But I wasn't afraid. My own teeth ached. My throat felt parched, too. "No."

"Don't push me," Sasuke snarled, grabbing my shoulders. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. Didn't you see what they did to me? That blood is in me."

"You won't hurt me." Wrenching free, I raked the room with my gaze, searching for something. How could I prove that I was the one not just to save him, but to seal our destiny? And then I saw it. The cup.

The cup from Orange Julius that I knew would have warm, crimson liquid inside. It was on his night-stand, and I darted for it, knowing that he was quicker than me. But I had the element of surprise on my side, and I snatched it up, tearing off the lid, half disgusted, half mad with craving.

"Saku, don't," Sasuke yelled, lunging for me.

I sidestepped and tipped the cup to my lips, pouring the thick, slippery, clotted blood into my mouth. It slid over my tongue, down my throat, and I poured so fast that it drenched my chin and my neck and seeped across my shirt. It was sticky and salty and sweet and tasted like life, on the brink of death. I drank it all, overcome by the taste, the smell . . . the pungent smell, now inside me, filling me, satisfying me. Sasuke stood transfixed as I finished, dragging my arm across my mouth. He said nothing as I shoved the cup against his chest, forcing him to accept it.

"There," I growled, feeling more powerful than I'd ever felt in my life. Powerful and sated and half sick. "Don't ever tell me that I'm not ready to rule."

Still, Sasuke didn't say a word. He just stood, still and rigid as a corpse, clutching the bloodied cup against his chest. I marched past him and made it down the stairs and out the door before I started shaking. I stood in the small circle of light at the entrance to the garage, letting the cold wind calm me. My shirt was sodden, but the blood, in the frozen winter air, was already clotting, freezing, hardening into scarlet ice. I wiped my chin again with a sticky arm. I wanted to throw up—and drink again. So I just waited a moment, trying to calm down, to figure out what to do. What if my parents saw me covered in blood?

I glanced toward the house. And that's when I saw Karin, standing about five feet away from me, staring.

"I was just coming back ... I forgot my cell phone," she stammered, clutching her red purse to her chest, so we looked a little like mirror images. Except her torso was covered by red leather, and mine was covered in gore. Her blue eyes were huge. "What. . . what the hell happened to you?"

I started to say something—anything—but I couldn't think of a single lie. As if a lie could explain why my face and throat and chest were covered with coagulating blood. It didn't matter. Karin turned on her heel and ran to her car. I was still standing there, shaking with the cold and with emotion, when the sound of her squealing tires disappeared into the night.

I knew that I had done something I could never undo. I had altered not just myself but the future.

Something had been set in motion the instant I'd tilted that cup to my lips, and I was sharply aware that Sasuke and I didn't have just angry old un-dead Elders to fear anymore. I had poured bloody grist into an American high school rumor mill—the only thing perhaps more dangerous than legions of warring vampires lusting for power.


	47. Should I be Worried?

"Saku, WHAT HAPPENED to you in the apartment?" Ino asked, clutching my arm, holding me back as I started up the stairs, headed for advanced chemistry. Her eyes were wide, imploring me to reassure her that everything was okay. "You can tell me. I'm your best friend."

"Nothing happened," I lied.

I wanted to tell Ino everything. The whole crazy story. I was so tired of carrying the entire burden myself. But I couldn't. She would never believe it, and if she did, what would she think of me if I told her I drank blood? That I wanted to drink more blood? I resumed climbing the steps. "We're going to be late for class."

Ino kept her hand on my arm, still holding me back. "I don't care about class. I just need to know what's up with you. There's a rumor going around that you had blood on your mouth, Saku. That you were coming out of Sasuke's apartment, and you were covered in blood."

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard," I said. Lies piling upon lies. Ino slid her hand down my arm, grasping my hand, squeezing it. "Is it Sasuke? Is he abusing you? You can tell me. We could get help!" Oh, god. . . that's what she thinks. . . ."No, Ino. I swear. If that was it, I'd tell you. I promise. Sasuke has never laid a hand on me." Not in a way I didn't want. . . didn't long for. . . . "It's not what you think."

She stared at me, and I realized I'd said too much. "But it is something, Saku. You just admitted it."

"It's nothing," I insisted, trying to smile. "You're getting carried away." Ino released my hand abruptly, as if I'd betrayed her. Which I had. I'd lied to my best friend, and she knew it. "I don't believe you, Saku. And I can't believe you don't trust me." There was a catch in her voice as she said that, and she ran up the stairs, away from me.

I sank down in the empty stairwell, lonelier than I'd ever been in my life. I'd lost Sasuke, and Naruto, and now Ino. Even my parents seemed almost like strangers living in a simpler world that I'd left behind. My only friend was an old vampire who loved cappuccino. And, of course, I was gaining enemies.

* * *

><p>"Well, well, well. The Packrat."<p>

The vile voice came from above me. I glanced up and over my shoulder to see Kiba Inuzaku and Suigetsui standing on the landing.

"Get lost," I said. They stomped down the stairs, looming over me. "Whatcha doin,' freak?" Kiba sneered, kicking my shin. I stood; ready, almost eager to confront them. "What do you want?"

"We want to know what's going on in that garage at your parents' freak farm," Suigetsui said. I'd never noticed how literally thick his skull looked under his fuzzy, fair buzz cut "You two use the word 'freak' a lot," I noted. "You should check out a thesaurus. They have one in the library. You do know where the library is, right?"

"Ooh, the Packrat has a smart mouth today," Kiba mocked me.

I tried to push past them, but they blocked my way.

"Not so fast," Kiba said.

"Yeah," Suigetsui grunted. "We want to know what the freak—"

"Seriously, find a synonym."

"What the freak that lives at your house is doing to my girlfriend." His girlfriend? That was a laugh. "I think Karin has a new boyfriend. In case you haven't noticed."

Kiba scowled. His pinkish face was downright ugly when he got angry. "That guy ... he did something to Karin. He's not normal. He ... he, like, hypnotized her."

"I don't know what you're talking about. And don't be a sore loser. Didn't football teach you anything?" Kiba flicked my ear. "Don't talk to Suigetsui like that." I gave Kiba a warning shove. "I'll talk to him any way I want. And don't you ever touch me again."

"Or what? You'll sic your bodyguard on me?" Kiba taunted. "Because I say bring it on."

"We know about him," Suigetsui added ominously. "You don't know anything."

"We know about the blood on you," Kiba said. "And we know about Uchiha, we checked him out on the Internet. That dude thinks he's a vampire." It was the first time I'd heard anyone, outside of Sasuke and my immediate family, use the V-word. My blood froze. "What?"

"A vampire," Suigetsui repeated. "And you know about it," Kiba added, twisting a finger into my shoulder. "You two are crazy. Do you even hear yourselves?"

"There's a whole website about Sasuke's family—the ones in Romania," Kiba said. Suigetsui smirked. "And do you know what they do in Romania? To vampires?" I swallowed thickly. Yes, I know. Kiba made a motion like jamming a stake into his chest. "They've done it. For real. They've done it to old Sasuke's family. His parents."

"We don't like weird people around here, either," Inuzaku added.

There was something really menacing in the way he said that. I forced myself to laugh. But my laugh sounded hollow and frightened. "You're both nuts."

"Oh, I don't think so—"

Kiba was interrupted by the slam of a door above us, and the rapid clip-clop of shoes against steps. "There you are," Karin cried, throwing herself into Kiba's arms, nearly knocking me down the last few stairs. She started sobbing, clutching Kiba He held her loosely, confusion on his bland, dumb face. "What's wrong, babe?"

"He broke up with me," she wailed. "That freak—"

Okay, I was seriously buying them all thesauri for graduation.

"He dumped me." She pulled away, jabbing a finger at her chest. "Me! Karin!" She suddenly realized I was there, and turned her wrath on me, stabbing the finger in my direction. "You . . . you two . . . you're both ..."

"Freaks?" I ventured.

"Yes! I hate you two." She turned back to Kiba, clutching him. "I don't know why I ever broke up with you. It's like he put me under a spell. But now it all seems so weird." She started crying, clinging to Kiba. It seemed a little over the top to me, but Kiba was buying the act.

He patted her back with his beefy hand.

"I just missed you so much." Karin sobbed. "Why did I ever go out with that guy?" A part of me was hugely relieved. Sasuke had sobered up. He had ditched Karin. Maybe, just maybe, he's going to honor the pact. . . .

My exultation was short-lived. Loosening her grip on Kiba, Karin whipped back around to face me, eyes narrowed to slits, mouth twisted with rage. She stabbed that finger at me again, talking through gritted teeth and tears. "You tell your precious Sasuke Uchiha that nobody—nobody—dumps Karin. He will be sorry."

Karin was still glaring up at me when I reached the top of the stairs and looked down on her. "He'll pay," she called to me. I believed her. Everything I'd set in motion with that one cup of spilled blood ... It was spinning out of control even faster than I'd ever imagined it could. I had never really believed that Kiba Inuzaku would actually manage to link Sasuke to the word vampire. But he had. And now Karin was furious at Sasuke.

Kiba, stupid as he was, had stumbled upon the damning knowledge. And Karin was just the person to use it, ruthlessly.

I had underestimated my enemies.

Sasuke would have called it a rookie mistake on my part. The error of a girl not ready to rule vampire legions. I had so much to learn and not enough time to learn it.


	48. Pushing Away

"SASUKE ?" MY VOICE echoed in the near-empty gym, sounding small.

The cavernous room was practically dark, with only one bank of lights turned on. At the far end of the court, Sasuke practiced layups alone in that repetitive, ritualistic way I'd seen before: dribble, slam, retrieve . . . again and again and again, never missing a shot. Never faltering. He didn't turn at the sound of my voice, and uncertain if he'd heard me, I walked to-ward him across the long expanse of hardwood.

"Sasuke?" I tried again when I reached the top of the key.

He crashed the ball through the hoop and let it bounce away, turning to face me, puzzled. Not pleased.

"Saku . . . how did you find me?"

"I saw you leave with the ball, and it's too cold to play out-side." I glanced around the empty gym. "I decided to see if you were here."

"How did you get in? The school is locked."

"The same way you did. I knocked on the window where the custodian was working. He told me where to find you."

"He usually just leaves the door nearest the gymnasium propped open for me," Sasuke said. "I have made it worth his while, of course, to break the rules." Some of the anger seemed to have faded from Sasuke, as if it had healed along with his bruises. And yet the old Sasuke wasn't back, either. The vampire before me seemed like a brand-new incarnation.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "I heard about Karin. That you broke up with her."

"Yes. That had run its course, as such things must."

I realized that Sasuke and I were standing very close to where we'd danced, back at the Christmas formal, which seemed a lifetime away, although it had only been a few weeks. As close as we'd briefly been that night—our blood nearly com-mingling—that's how far apart we seemed in the empty gymnasium. I might as well have been standing at the other end of the massive room. I might as well have been standing on an-other planet.

"I made a mistake, Sasuke. Drinking the blood. Letting Karin see it."

"I have made worse errors, Saku. Don't worry yourself unnecessarily."

"But now Kiba is talking about you being a vampire, and Karin is furious, and everyone is gossiping. Even Ino is pulling away from me, scared by the rumors."

"Yes, quite a few things seem to be converging, do they not?" Sasuke didn't smile wryly, as I'd expected.

He was strangely quiet. Almost preternaturally calm.

"What are you going to do, Sasuke?"

He turned his back on me and scooped up the ball, palming it easily. "Play basketball, Saku. And wait."

"Sasuke—"

"Good night, Saku," he said, drowning out any reply I could have offered with the sound of the basketball smacking the hardwood, the squeak of his shoes on the court, and the swoosh of the shot through the rim. Again and again and again

* * *

><p>"HEY." RESTING MY BACK against the tiled gym wall, I sank down next to Ino, who had been eliminated right before me. "That looked like it hurt." Ino avoided my eyes. She kept staring at the dodge ball game like she had a million-dollar bet riding on the outcome.<p>

"It's just a ball."

"But that idiot, Dane, aimed right for your head . . ."

Ino edged away, just a little, on the gym floor. She still didn't look at me. "It didn't hurt so bad."

"Are you still mad at me? Or just freaked out?" I finally asked.

Ino shrugged. "A little of both, I guess."

"Oh. Because at first it was like you always had an excuse for why we couldn't eat lunch, and then you got really bad about returning phone calls . . . You've been avoiding me for two weeks, Ino." Ino fiddled with her shoelaces, retying them with the sort of focus usually associated with five-year-olds. "I'm just busy, that's all."

"You're not that busy." I said angrily with my eyes tearing up. Ino finally looked at me. "I'm sorry, Saku, but. . ."

"But what?"

"It just got too weird for me."

"So you believe the rumors." The tears started falling. She stared back out at the dodge ball game. "I don't know what to believe. And you won't tell me."

"It's complicated," I said. "But if you can just trust me for a while until I sort it out—" Ino turned to me again, and this time there was fear in her eyes. "It's not just about you, Saku."

"Then what?"

"It's . . . him. He's the one who changed you. He did something to you. And he did something to Karin. She showed people the scratches..." Ino didn't have to clarify who "him" was: Sasuke. "Everything was normal until he came here, and he changed you," Ino said, misery in her voice, as if Sasuke had actually stolen something from her. And I suppose, in her view, he had.

"It's not Sasuke's fault," I said. "I mean, it's nobody's fault, because everything's fine."

"It's not fine, Saku." Ino's composure was cracking. "You know I like Sasuke—I liked Sasuke. But people are saying he's not right. People are scared."

"There's nothing to be scared of." Ino tried to smile but couldn't quite manage it. "If you say so, Saku."

"You're still coming over for my birthday, right?" I asked. "For dinner?"

My eighteenth birthday was a few weeks away. Ino and I had always celebrated our birthdays together. We had ex-changed presents and eaten cake and made wishes, side-by-side since we'd been four years old. I gave her hand a shake. "You'll be there, right?" But the force with which Ino pulled away and the way she glanced around to see if anyone had noticed me touching her told me that the tradition was over. "I'm sorry, Saku," she said. It sounded like her throat was tight. "I just can't. Not if he's there."

"Please, Ino . . ." I started sobbing silently.

But I didn't get a chance to finish convincing her, because an errant dodgeball smacked the wall right above my head. My inadvertent yelp alerted Coach Larson to the fact that Ino and I were just sitting around, and she blew her whistle. "Get your butts back in here or do some laps," she hollered, clapping fiercely. "Don't just sit there getting fat and lazy!"

I slid slowly up the wall with my usual goal of wasting as much gym time as possible, but Mindy was on her feet like a shot, tearing into the fray, grabbing up a ball and hurling it at our classmates with a vengeance that astonished me. I'd never seen Ino Yamanka actually participate in gym class. She always did her best either to be the first person retired from any game or to fake an injury. And she was the most believable actress I'd ever known when it came to cramps. One month she'd managed to have her period for three straight weeks. But now. . . now Mindy was rocketing around the gym floor, scooping up every stray ball she could get her hands on, firing like a Gatling gun in a gangster movie.

Maybe she was imagining me out there, cowering against the wall.

"Get in here, too, Haru." Coach Larson blew her whistle again. "Now!"

But I ignored her. I just watched Ino for a few moments, then walked to the locker room, excusing myself with a resolute dignity that my gym teacher seemed powerless to counter, because she didn't even attempt to order me again.


	49. 18th Birthday Full of Surprises

"Saku, BLOW OUT the candles."

My eighteenth birthday. It should have been one of the highlights of my life, but it was just awful. Depressing. I had no friends and so no party. My only guest was, of course, Uncle Zabu, whose continued presence we had finally revealed to Sasuke and my parents. My uncle sat at the table, watching everything with his bright little eyes. "This is just lovely," he kept saying. "Top notch."

"The wax is dripping," Mom said, prodding me. She had concocted a vegan cake out of rice syrup, soy milk, and unsweetened applesauce. A real crowd-pleaser. Still, I blew, to make her happy. The candles sputtered, died. I didn't bother to make a wish.

"Hooray," Mom said, trying to rally the little party.

Sasuke stared at me from across the table as Mom cut the faux cake. If there is one thing worse than an angry vampire, it is the inscrutable version. Nobody can do blank eyes like a vampire. I stared back, trying not to miss the person who was right there in front of me. It didn't work. I missed him, anyway. If only he would just talk to me. ... He had to be lonely. Everyone was sidestepping him at school, whispering behind his back, as the story of Kiba's book report spread through the halls, adding more force to the rumors already circulating. The fact that Sasuke had pretty much admitted he was undead, right in front of Mrs. Wilhelm's class, hadn't helped to calm things down.

Suddenly it wasn't uncommon to hear the word "vampire" whispered in the halls of Woodrow Wilson High School.

"Hey, this is great," Dad said, digging into his slice of cake.

Does he really believe that?

"We got you a gift." Mom smiled, handing me a box wrapped in the cheerful, crinkled pink-and-yellow paper we'd been recycling since I was about ten years old.

"Oh, gifts," Zabu cried, clapping his hands together. "I do love presents."

I carefully removed the wrapping so Mom could put it away for yet another year. Inside the box were a new, high-tech calculator and a card announcing that I had a renewed subscription to Math Whiz magazine. I gave my parents a puzzled glance. They knew I'd quit the math team.

"You might regain your interest someday," Mom said.

I knew what she really meant: You might become yourself again. You will get over Sasuke and your life will go on.

"Thanks, Mom and Dad. It's a great gift."

"Sasuke, don't you have a gift for Sakura, too?" Zabu nudged. Sasuke snapped back from some private reverie. "Yes, yes. Of course."

"Really, Sasuke?" He'd been so detached, so drawn into himself, that I certainly hadn't expected him to go shopping on my behalf. I watched with anticipation as he reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a box. A tiny case. Red velvet. Like the kind of box rings come in. Engagement rings. Both my parents sucked in their breaths. You could hear the sound of air whistling past their lips. With the exhale, a few crumbs of the hideous cake dripped out of Dad's open mouth. Suddenly my own heart was racing, too.

Sasuke slid the box across the table. "Here. Happy birthday. Many happy returns."

"Oh, goodness," Mom was saying. "I'm not sure . . ." I willed my fingers not to shake as I reached for the box and flipped open the lid. Is this going to be it? Did Sasuke change his mind? Are we going through with the pact?

But no.

Inside, lying on a small square of pure white velvet, was not a ring, but a necklace, with a stone so deeply crimson as to be almost black.

It was beautiful.

I loathed it.

I nearly reeled from the disappointment that squeezed my chest, making it difficult to breathe. At the sight of the ring-sized container, I'd really believed that Sasuke had changed his mind about fulfilling the pact. For the briefest moment, I'd pictured us together. Our whole future had flashed before me. Me. Sasuke. Peace among vampires. Safety in each other's arms, no matter what the Elders or our fellow students threatened. For the briefest moment, I'd believed the small box had held the promise of all that.

But of course, looking across the table at Sasuke, I realized that my hopes had been absurd. His was not the posture of a man proposing marriage. He sat upright, eyes neutral, self-contained in his new, serenely disinterested state. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't a suitor about to marry. He was a vampire about to be destroyed. Waiting for what would converge upon him. I wanted to scream and hurl the necklace across the room, like a petulant child who didn't get the toy she desired. But I wasn't a petulant child. I was a devastated young woman, and I had to at least exhibit a grace I didn't feel.

"Thank you," I managed to say. "It's lovely." Then I snapped the lid shut and set the box aside. "I'm rather tired. If you don't mind, I think I'll go upstairs."

My parents both looked sad and drained, and I realized that they were also being dragged down by my too-apparent suffering and their concerns for me and Sasuke. Pushing back my chair, I went over to Mom and hugged her tightly. "Thank you so much for a wonderful birthday. You're the best mother ever." I moved to my dad. "And you're the best dad. Of all time."

"You're a beautiful young woman, Saku," Dad said, voice catching in his throat. "We're both proud of you." Pulling free of Dad's embrace, I nodded to Zabu and Sasuke. "Good night, and thank you," I said. "Good night, Sakura," Zabu chirped. "Many happy returns!" Sasuke didn't say a word. He just sat there, staring at the rejected gift.

* * *

><p>I maintained my composure all the way up to my bedroom, even after I was out of earshot of my family. Even as I undressed and pulled on my nightgown, I didn't yield to my tears. I saved my sobs until I'd climbed into bed, buried my face in my pillow, and smothered them, so no one would hear. I would not make my parents worry even more than they already did.<p>

"Saku."

His voice came from my door.

I rolled over to see, through my tears, the wavering shape of Sasuke standing in my doorway. I swiped at my eyes, embarrassed to have been caught weeping. He entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him, and came over to me, sitting down on the bed. "Please, don't cry," he soothed. "There is nothing worth crying over. It is your birthday."

"Everything is wrong," I protested, grinding away my tears with the heels of my palms.

"No, Saku," Sasuke soothed, pulling away my hands. He gently drew his thumb beneath my eyes, first one then the other, wiping the tears. "For you, things will be right. This is a happy day for you. Your eighteenth birthday is an important milestone. Please, I cannot bear your tears."

"A happy day?" I was incredulous.

"The box . . . you thought it was something else," Sasuke said. "I saw your face. You were disappointed. You thought I had undergone a change of heart..."

"Yes," I said, still sniffling.

"No, Saku." He shook his head. "Never. You must forget all that."

"I can't," I said, reaching out for him. But Lucius stood, rising quickly, almost like he was scared to touch me, and I knew that for all his cool detachment, a part of him still felt drawn to me. That he had always felt drawn to me, as I had— and did—to him. "You did not give me the opportunity to explain my gift," he said, reaching into his pocket and again retrieving the box. He held it out to me. "It is better than a ring, for you. Better than a promise of. . . what? Eternity with a doomed vampire?"

"Nothing could have made me happier than your agreement to the pact," I said, refusing to take the box.

"Oh, Saku, abandon those notions in favor of what I can offer." He extended his hand again, the box on his palm. "Did you not recognize the contents?" I was confused, but stood up, curious, reaching for the box. "Recognize it?"

"From the photograph. I know you've looked at her, Saku. I knew you would, in your own time. When you were ready."

My mother. It was the necklace from the photograph he'd tucked in my book. I snapped open the lid again. "Oh, Sasuke. Where did you get it?"

"It was held for you, in Romania. To be given to you on this occasion. It was your mother's favorite possession, and it is my honor to deliver such an important keepsake to you. I hope you wear it many years in good health, with good fortune."

I went to my desk and picked up the photograph in the silver frame, looking at the bloodstone that graced my mother's throat. The bloodstone that I now held in my other hand, tangible evidence of Mizubki Harunovexistence. A real link to her. The stone lay on the velvet, deep red, like a real heart.

A heart transplanted from my mother to me.

Sasuke came up behind me, resting his hands upon my shoulders. "Is she not beautiful, powerful, regal. . . just like you?" he asked. "Do you really believe that?"

"Yes," Sasuke said. "And I think you have come to believe it, too."

"Then—"

"No." Sasuke didn't even allow me to bring up the pact. I replaced the photograph on the desk and turned to face my mirror. Removing the necklace from the box, I held it up to my throat. Sasuke followed me, watching my reflection. "Allow me. Please." He again stepped behind me, taking the delicate chain from my fingers. I swept my hair off my neck, and Sasuke slipped the necklace around my throat and sealed the clasp.

The stone was cool against my skin, much as my vampire mother's touch would have been. As I watched myself in the mirror, the power I'd felt growing inside of me—her power— surged with even greater strength. The connection I'd been forging was finally welded tight with the clasping of that fragile chain, and I could almost hear her whispering in my ear. "Do not give him up for lost yet, Sakura. That is not our way. Your will is as strong as his, and his love as strong as yours."

I turned to face Sasuke, and I didn't wait for him to pull away, or draw me close, or make any movement. I placed my hands on his chest, slipped them upward, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Sakura this cannot be. . . ." Sasuke clasped my wrists in his strong hands, as though to push me away. "It can be," I promised him, holding firm, my fingers linking behind his neck, lacing into his black hair. "Why can I not do as I should?" He groaned, giving up easily, not only accepting my embrace, but answering it. "I should have gone by now ... I waste time, just to be near you, I fear. And for what? A few more moments before I am nothing but one of your memories? A tragic entry in a young woman's diary?"

"You stayed for this moment," I said, allowing him, then, to take control, as I knew he would want. I had wielded all the power Id needed. I had drawn him back from the cold distance. Now I wanted Sasuke to kiss me. To bite my throat. To fulfill what wed both wanted for so long. Ever since he'd leaned over me in the kitchen on the first day he'd arrived at our house, his hand brushing my cheek. Ever since he'd met my eyes and asked, "Would it be so repugnant, really, Sakura? To be with me?" Even then, I'd known, deep inside, that it would be far from repugnant. That it would be something miles and miles beyond nice. That it might just be bliss.

Sasuke hesitated just one more moment, staring into my eyes. "I am no less dangerous to you, Sakura," he whispered. "Whatever we do ... it is only for tonight. It changes nothing. I will leave to meet my destiny, and you will stay here to carry out yours."

"Don't think about that now," I begged. Because I did not believe that what we did that night would change nothing. I believed it could change everything. "Just forget the future for now."

"As you wish, my princess," Sasuke said, closing his eyes, giving in to me. He leaned down to brush his cool, rough lips against mine, first gently, then more insistently.

I snaked my fingers deeper into his hair, pulling him against me, and when I did that, Lucius made a hungry little sound, slipping his hands up into my pink tangle of curls, and we kissed harder, like we were famished for each other. Like we were devouring each other.

And as we kissed, really kissed, something inside of me was smashed, like a splitting atom, erupting with all the force of a shattering nucleus. And yet I was strangely at peace, too. It was like I'd found my place in the universe, in the chaos, and Sasuke and I could go along locked together throughout time without end, like pi, existing infinitely, irratinally, spinning through time.

His lips moved down to my throat, and my incisors began to ache at the touch of his fangs, which brushed my skin, sharp against me. He traced his teeth along the length of my neck, down to where the bloodstone rested in the hollow, close to my breastbone.

"Sasuke, yes," I urged him, opening my throat as far as I could, offering and begging. "Don't stop . . . please don't stop this time..." If he bites me, he would be mine.. . . Always . . .

"No, Sakura." He fought himself, but I pressed him to myself again, feeling his fangs prick at my flesh, almost enough to pierce the skin, and my own teeth sharpened against my gums, nearly ripping through.

"Yes, Sasuke . . . my fangs ... I can feel them ..."

"No." Sasuke regained control of himself then, he replaced his fangs with his lips, He kissed my neck and massaged my breast. All of sudden fear set in. Images of Naruto flickered in my head. I started to forcibly push Sasuke away. Tears were forming in my eyes.

Sasuke pulled back and locked at me. "Sakura what's wrong?" I didn't rely my whole body started shaking and I started crying. I cross my arms over my chest as if I was protecting myself. "Sakura what happened?" He asked again this time he asked me more forcibly grabbing my shoulders slightly shaking me. But my mind was gone I was back in the memory of Naruto raping me. "Please don't hurt me I'm sorry I'll do whatever you want!" I cried harder hitting Sasuke, thinking he was Naruto. When my fist came in for a hit Sasuke grabbed it pulling me towards him. I looked in his eyes seeing his sharingan activated. All of a sudden I slowly came back to consciousness, and slumped in Sasuke arms.

* * *

><p>Sasuke pov:<p>

I used my sharingan and pulled her out of her memory. I picked her up bridal style carrying her to her bed sitting her in my lap. Once I was seated comfortable I rubbed her back and long pink locks wondering, waiting for her sobbing to calm down. "Sakura be honest with me what happened to you when you came home late that night?" Her sobbing stop but she didn't answer me. "Sakura I can look into your memor-."

"I was raped and beaten." She said cutting my sentence off and crying again. I held her tighter to me my muscles tensed up but I tried to keep my cool. "Who did this?"

"Nar…Naru.. Naruto did." She slowly got up and pulled her night gown up showing me the scars on her stomach the black and blue gashes that were slowly disappearing. I grabbed her waist and pulled her into a hug, my head on her stomach. "I'm going to kill that bastard." I said softly ,gritting my teeth. She squeezed my head. "Sasuke-kun don't you'll get in more trouble, and besides I deserved it-."

I pulled away from her standing up to my full 6'7 frame towering over her small petite body, sharingan swirling fast. "What are you talking about?"

"I was attracted to you while dating him, when we went on dates I would think of you and not him, at the winter dance I danced with you and ditched him. He knew I was attracted to you and there was nothing he could."

"So raping you and hitting you was an option?"

"No Sasuke that's not what I meant-."

"No man should ever hurt a women under any circumstances, I'm going to put him in his place. Aren't you tired of getting physically, mentally, and emotionally abused?"

"I don't know what it means to be loved in a relationship Sasuke-kun I'm used to even by you! You fucked with my emotions leading me to believe we could be happy, and then you fuck with Karin, and now your done with her and uninterested in me! My bestfriend can't be around me no more, she thinks I'm a freak, I don't know how I should be treated!"

I got silent then my sharingan disappearing. I guess I am on the list of bad guys who hurt her. I pulled her into my embraced rubbing her back. I could feel my shirt getting wet from her tears, I sighed before I could speak. "I'm very sorry Sakura that your suffering even more because of me, I'll try to make up to you but I just don't know how to yet.

Before she could speak her father rushed in the room. "Sasuke, the police are here," Dad said. He was strangely composed. "A girl claims to have been bitten by a vampire, and she's identified you."

* * *

><p>Sakura Pov:<p>

"Sasuke?" I stared up at him, desperate for an answer. But Sasuke just kissed me once more, lightly on the lips, and turned to my father. "It's best that I face this alone, Mr. Haru," he said. "Please—let me deal with this without your help this time." Dad hesitated, then stepped aside and allowed Sasuke to go, capturing me in his arms as I tried to follow.


	50. Mobs,Vampires,Plans

**Author's Note I'm posting 3more chapters after this I want atleast a total of 15 to 20 comments, if i don't have those comments I won't post anymore. Guys I really need to know your opinions and it bothers me knowing people our reading my stories but not commenting. So if you don't comment then I won't post simple as that. **

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><p>"SHE'S SETTING SASUKE up," I told my parents. "Karin swore she'd get back at him for breaking up with her. She made it all up." They shot each other looks that said they were uncertain.<p>

"Sasuke broke up with Karin days ago," I added, pleading his case. "And I'm pretty sure it was because he was afraid he was going to bite her. He knew he was getting out of control, but he stopped himself."

Mom was clearing plates from my dismal party. "Saku, Sasuke has been going through something very difficult, struggling within himself. We can't be sure what happened."

"Nothing happened!"

"And was 'nothing' happening in your room?" Dad asked. "You are too involved with Sasuke to be objective, Saku."

"He's a Uchiha," Mom added, dumping plates in the sink. She seemed very upset. "He wants not to be, but perhaps he couldn't fight that side of himself. Perhaps it was even dangerous to allow him to live here. I'm not even sure we did the right thing anymore."

"You're not being fair. Just because his uncles are terrible doesn't mean Sasuke is a monster! He didn't bite Karin. Please, let's go to the police station!" My parents shared another uncertain look. Then Dad said, "Saku, no matter how we feel, Sasuke asked us to let him handle this alone. We are going to respect his wishes. And so are you."

"I'm eighteen now," I pointed out. "I don't need your permission to do anything."

"But you do need a car," Mom noted.

I hurried to the hook by the back door where my parents kept the keys. Gone. "Where are the keys?"

"This is for your own good, Saku," Dad said. "You've gotten in way too deep with Sasuke. You need to step back."

"And it is our responsibility to protect you," Mom added. "We want to help Sasuke, too, of course. But you are our first priority." I stared at them, betrayed.

"He doesn't want us right now, Saku We've done all we can," Dad said. The phone rang, and I snatched up the receiver. "Sasuke?"

"No, it's Ino."

"I can't talk now—"

"It's about Sasuke," Ino said. There was panic in her voice.

"What is it? What's going on?"

"I don't know if I should tell you."

"Just say it, Ino. Please."

"They're out of control," she said. "They're talking about beating him up for what he did to Karin. Kiba has them all worked up, with all that vampire stuff. They're crazy!" My fingers clutched at the receiver. "What exactly did you hear?"

"Some of the guys . .. They're waiting for Sasuke. They're going to take him out to Naruto's barn and 'teach him a lesson.' " She paused. "I'm scared for him, Saku. I don't know what he did to you—"

"Nothing!"

"But I'm scared for him. They're talking about the blood on you, and the scratches on Karin, and how his leg healed so fast . . . and all that stuff they found on the website about Sasuke's family, Saku." She paused. "Karin heard you call him a vampire, too. In the barn."

That day in the barn so long ago. Again I made things worse for Sasuke. Me. . . I'm the dangerous one. . .. "They keep talking about vampires and stakes," Ino cried.

"Stakes?" The receiver nearly slipped from my grasp.

"Yes, Saku. They're taking stakes, like it's the Middle Ages or something! In case he's really a vampire! They're crazy!" Stakes. Out-of-control people. Mobs. My birth parents were destroyed that way. . . . I struggled to remain calm. "Did they say when this is all happening?"

"Tonight. Later tonight. They're going to get Sasuke when he comes out of the police station . .. Everybody heard about him getting arrested ..." Of course. The rumor mill was probably going berserk. "Thanks, Ino."

"I... I know we haven't been friends lately . . . but this— this is crazy. I thought you should know."

"I gotta go."

"And Saku?"

"What?"

"Happy birthday."

"Bye, Ino." I hung up the receiver, tore out the door be-fore my parents could stop me, and ran for our barn to saddle up Belle.

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><p><strong>Author's Note I'm posting 3more chapters after this I want atleast a total of 15 to 20 comments, if i don't have those comments I won't post anymore. Guys I really need to know your opinions and it bothers me knowing people our reading my stories but not commenting. So if you don't comment then I won't post simple as that. <strong>


	51. Murder

BELLES HOOVES THUNDERED in the rainy night. I was freezing on her back. It was late winter, and the night was still icy cold, the sleet pelting against my face, melting through my thin shirt. There had been no time to grab a coat.

"Come on, Belle," I urged, slamming my heels into her flanks, willing my mare to go faster. It seemed like she under-stood my urgency, for she flew across the frozen field. I prayed she wouldn't hit a groundhog hole and snap a leg, the night was so dark and we tore so recklessly across the uneven terrain.

Save Sasuke . . . Save Sasuke. . .That's what I heard pounding in my ears with every hoofbeat.

Ahead of me, finally, the ' barn loomed, pale gray and arched like a tombstone against the sky. A little cry escaped my lips. There were cars there. Already. But I can't be too late. I just can't. As I leapt from Belle's back before she even reined to a stop, I heard raised voices from inside the barn. Angry, male voices, and the sound of a scuffle. Running to the barn, I tore open the heavy door, hauling it back on its rusty track.

Inside: pandemonium. The struggle was already underway. The mob was loosed.

"Naruto, no," I cried, seeing my ex-boyfriend there in the middle of the melee. But he didn't pay any attention. No one did. No one even noticed me running into the fight, trying to drag the boys off of Sasuke. The crowd was in a lather. There was blood everywhere, fists flying, and Sasuke struggling alone against them. He was so strong, but not strong enough for this. . . .

"I'll kill you for what you did to her," Kiba Inuzaku was screaming, pounding on Sasuke. I tried to grasp Kiba's fists, but someone pushed me away, flinging me against a wall. I came back; yelling at them to stop, but no one paid attention. They were drunk on revenge and fear and hatred, hatred of someone different than themselves.

"Stop it," I begged. "Leave him alone!"

Sasuke must have heard my voice, because he turned toward me, just for a second, and I saw surprise in his eyes. Surprise and resignation.

"Sasuke, no," I begged, knowing what he was about to do. Get himself destroyed. Sasuke was strong enough to beat all of these guys up but he was purposely going to commit suicide like this. But he made the fatal move, anyway. He turned back to the already furious boys and bared his fangs.

Macho bravado was abandoned among the attackers.

"Vampire!" Kiba cried, terror and shock mingling in his voice.

"Son of a bitch . . ." Kiba backed away, looking petrified, as if he'd suddenly realized that it wasn't just a terrible game anymore. He'd unleashed a power he had never really expected to lose, for all his talk of vampires and websites and stakes.

Kiba scrambled backward on the hay-covered floor, too, but he was reaching blindly behind him for something. I saw it before he located it. The stake. Homemade. Crude. But lethal. Half buried in the hay. I dove for it—but Naruto saw it, too, and he was faster. He snatched it up and stalked toward Sasuke, who was fighting his way to his feet, squaring off against the shorter but still powerful wrestler.

"No, Naruto!" I wailed, scrambling to my knees, scrambling to grab Naruto''s legs, missing them as Jake gained speed. Sasuke growled, advanced, too. And then, as if in slow motion, I saw my ex-boyfriend raise his arm, lunge forward, and plunge the stake into Sasuke's chest.

"Naruto—no!" I screamed the words. Or I thought I screamed the words. I don't remember actually hearing them come out of my mouth.

And in a split second, it was over.

Naruto—the nice boy—was standing over Lucius's body. Sasuke's too-still body.

"What have you done?" I cried into the sudden silence.

Naruto stepped back, the heavy, sharp, and bloody chunk of wood in his hand. "It had to be me," he said, looking at me with miserable eyes. "I'm sorry."

I didn't know what he meant. I didn't care.

"Sasuke," I moaned, stumbling through the hay. I collapsed at his side, feeling for his pulse. It was there, but fainter than usual. Blood seeped from a hole in his shirt. A gaping hole. I glanced up at the circle of faces. Familiar faces. Guys I knew from school. The anger was gone now, and the realization of what they'd actually done seemed to be settling in. How could they have done this? "Get help," I begged them.

"No, Sakura," Lucius said softly.

I bent over him, gently pressing my hands over the hole in his chest, as if I could stop the blood. "Sasuke . . ."

"It is over, Saku," he managed to say, voice soft. "Just leave it be.

A commanding voice came from the darkest corner of the barn. "Get out. All of you. And never speak of this. Never. Nothing ever happened here."

Zabu .My uncle had shed his usual merry demeanor, and he spoke with an unfamiliar authority as he emerged from the shadows, striding in, taking control. Feet shuffled quickly in hay as the cluster of teenagers obeyed and dispersed, running as though the vampire's words had been a slingshot releasing them into the night.

Where had Zabu come from? Why hadn't he been here in time? I rose and ran at him, pounding my stained fists against his chest. "You let this happen. You should have protected him!"

"Leave, Sakura," Zabu insisted, grabbing my fists. He was surprisingly strong. Sadness suffused his eyes. "This is Sasuke's destiny. It's what he wishes."

No. That can't be. We just kissed. . . ."What do you mean, what he wishes'?" I wailed, running back to Sasuke, falling to my knees. "Our destiny is together, right? Say it, Sasuke."

"No, Sakura," he said, voice weak and fading. "You belong here. Live a happy life. A long life. A human life."

"No, Sasuke." I sobbed, begging him to live. He couldn't just give up. "I want to live with you."

"It is not to be, Sakura."

I swore I saw tears in his black eyes, just before he closed them, and I started screaming, and the next thing I remembered was my dad's hands lifting me, pulling me away, carrying me, fighting against nothing and everything, to the van. I didn't know when they had arrived or how they had found me.

It didn't matter.

Sasuke was gone.

Destroyed.

The body disappeared, and Zabu disappeared, and, as per Zabu's instruction, nobody ever spoke of it again. It was like the whole thing had been a dream. If not for the necklace around my throat, the way the clasp kind of burned where his fingers had sealed it, maybe I wouldn't have believed it myself.


	52. Could it Be?

"AND THE WOODROW WILSON School Spirit Award goes to . . . Karin."

My fingers clutched the chain-link fence as the girl responsible, in large part, for Sasuke's destruction strode to the temporary riser like some sort of hero, mounting the steps to a chorus of whistles and cheers from a sea of graduates in navy blue caps and gowns. Beneath her cap, Karin's red hair flapped like a flag in the brisk wind as she accepted her award and waved to the crowd.

The numbness I'd carefully nurtured as a way of dealing with my pain and rage and loss nearly shattered to see Karin applauded, and I'm not sure how I kept from shrieking out loud.

Why did I come to watch graduation?I had refused to participate in the ceremony, but something perverse in me had drawn me to the football field to witness my classmates, many of whom I'd known since kindergarten—and a few of whom had participated in the slaughter of the one person I'd loved most in this world—receive their diplomas. I suppose I wanted to see their faces. Was there any hint of the evil deed they'd committed in that barn? Or had they convinced themselves that nothing had ever happened, as Zabu had advised? Or— and this was the possibility that made me sickest—did one or two of them believe they had done something good? Did Naruto feel that way? He'd said to me that night,

"It had to be me." What did that even mean?

"Sakura." The voice was soft but clear. "It does no good to torture yourself. Although dreaming of revenge is a very typ-ical vampire behavior."

Turning, I saw him.

A slightly pudgy, balding vampire, just a few feet from me, leaning against the wall of the field's concession stand under a sign urging us to contribute to the Woodrow Wilson Band Boosters. He wore a navy T-shirt with the Wilson mascot—a tough-looking, jowly dog dubbed "Woody"—embroidered on the chest.

Catching my eye, Zabuwaved.

Just seeing him—someone connected to Sasuke and that night—made me want to vomit, for just a second. When my stomach stopped lurching, I started walking like some sort of zombie.

Behind me, I heard more cheers as Kiba won an award for outstanding achievement in athletics. The applause seemed to come from a million miles away as I made my way across the grass toward Zabu. Toward a brief but intense past that still consumed me.

"Well, well, well. Don't you look pale and serious." Zabu clucked as I approached him. "Almost like a proper vampire." He hugged me, but I stiffened in his embrace, still believing he'd failed to protect Sasuke.

"Why aren't you graduating today with the rest of them?" he asked.

"They don't mean anything to me," I said, stepping back from him.

"And yet you're here!"

"Zabu—forget about me. What are you doing here?"

"Hmm." Zabu frowned. "It's very complicated stuff. Very difficult to explain."

I really wasn't up for anything challenging, but I asked anyway. "What kind of complicated stuff?"

"It seems that there's a bit of a dustup in Romania." Zabu sighed, avoiding my eyes. "Something of a mess, really. You're not supposed to know about it, of course. But I got to thinking . . . it's not really fair to keep you in the dark. We've probably done so for too long. That was Sasuke's idea, of course. Don't blame me. If he knew I was here . . ."

My knees nearly buckled, and Zabu lunged to catch my elbow. "Steady there!"

"Did you just say . . . Sasuke?" I demanded. "If Sasuke knew you were here?" But that's impossible. . . . Sasuke had been destroyed. . . .

Zabu cleared his throat, looking guilty and nervous. "He thought it was best to do it his way. But he's just miserable, and things are falling apart back home." I grabbed Zabu by the shoulders, shaking him harder than I'd ever shaken anything in my life. "IS. SASUKE. ALIVE?"

"Oh, yes, quite," Zabu admitted, trying to wrench out of my grasp. "But at this rate ..."

It is weird how relief and joy—the most intense joy imaginable—and fury—the most intense fury imaginable—can get all mixed up, and the next thing you know, you are sobbing and laughing and pounding your fists against a vampire's chest, driving him backward against a high school concession stand.

When I regained the smallest measure of my composure, we went home to get my passport. I was going to Romania. I was going home to find Sasuke.


	53. Plane Talk

"SO Naruto rose to the occasion, so to speak. Agreed to be in on the whole stunt. Said he sort of admired Sasuke, in spite of everything. Something about Sasuke standing up for you against that bully Kiba Inuzaku."

"And that was enough to convince him to thrust a stake into Sasuke's chest?" I was skeptical. "Well, I may have threatened him, too. Just a little," Zabu confirmed. "But he's a nice boy, that Naruto. It's a good thing Sasuke had mentioned him in letters home."

"Sasuke had mentioned him?"

"Oh, of course," Zabu said. "He was always complaining about the 'squatty, nice' boy who was messing up the whole courtship." Nice. There was that word again. This time, it made me smile. "Yes, Naruto is a nice guy." If I ever made it back to Lebanon County, I would thank him.

"Pretzel?" Zabu said, echoing my thoughts. "Sasuke wouldn't have even liked my enlisting Jacob. He really did want to be destroyed that night. He was quite surprised— and a little peeved—to wake up still alive. He got over it, though."

I stared out at the passing clouds. "But how could Sasuke do that to me? Let me think he was gone? Why didn't he contact me?" Zabu patted my arm. "He really thought it was best for you to believe he was gone. Sasuke—he sees his dark side. Very clearly."

"Sasuke can control that side of himself. He just won't believe it.

"Yes," Zabu agreed. "You and I are certain that Sasuke is honorable. Anyone who knows him can see that. Indeed, Sasuke's endless struggle with his conscience is evidence of the strength of his good side.

But Madara tried to twist him, to make Sasuke a pawn in his cruel schemes. And so Sasuke never seems to know his true nature. Noble prince or vicious fiend? Both? He is a vampire at war with himself." Zabu added, "Buying that horse, Hell's Belle, didn't help, either. Sasuke got a bit obsessed with that animal. He felt a kinship with it, and started thinking maybe he was just too damaged to live, too. That eventually, he would harm . . ."

"Me."

"Yes. He didn't want you to suffer eternity with a monster—in the more technical sense of the term. You know, some-one capable of terrible cruelty . .." Zabu trailed off. "But now he suffers."

I looked at my traveling companion. "What do you mean?"

"Sasuke needs you. He mourns you. He loves you. It's very unusual for a vampire to truly love. Some hold that real love between vampires is a myth. That we are too vicious by nature. But Sasuke does. He loves you—as you love him." I wanted, more than anything, for Sasuke to love me. But I was still hurt. "Didn't he realize that the crudest thing he could do was leave me?"

"He thought you would recover quickly, get on with your life. That's what teenagers do, right? 'Bounce back'?"

"But I'm not a normal teenager."

"Of course not." Zabu paused. "Sasuke thought he did you a favor, though. At great cost to his own heart. Tremendous cost. My eyes filled with tears, like they always did when I thought of Sasuke. "I miss him so much."

"Of course. But you must be prepared when you see him. His dark side really does grow more powerful every day. He destroyed Madara, you know."

"What?" I didn't think I'd heard right.

"Oh, yes," Zabu confirmed. "When Madara found out Sasuke was still with us, and in Romania, he ordered him destroyed for disobedience. For abandoning the pact he was sent to fulfill. Well, Sasuke marched right into the castle and said, 'Do it yourself, old man,' or something to that effect. And Madara said, 'You impertinent chit,' and set upon Sasuke like a wolf on a hind—that's a deer in your country." Sasuke fighting Vasile? It hardly seemed fair. Sasuke was strong, but Madara was beyond strong. He was like a force of nature. "What happened?"

"Sasuke won. And in a fight to the finish . . . well, someone gets 'finished.'"

"Oh." Even though Madara had been unspeakably cruel, it was hard to imagine Sasuke plunging a stake into anyone's chest. . . .

Zabu correctly read my silence. "Sasuke had no choice. But he was nearly shattered when it was all over. Wouldn't eat for days. Still, what could he have done? Stand there and let Madara destroy him? If you ask me, the boy had endured far too much already. The world's a better place with Madara out of the way."

"But Sasuke can't accept that, can he?"

"No. Of course not. Sasuke was raised—indoctrinated— to honor family above all else. He was taught since infancy to respect—and protect—Madara as his mentor and superior. Of course Sasuke sees disobeying and ultimately destroying Madara as just more evidence that he is irredeemable. And so he acts irredeemably."

"What exactly is he doing?" I was truly scared to hear the answer.

"He is precipitating a war; that is what he is doing."

"How?"

"Our people, the Haruno's, are furious about the pact. They think Sasuke left you behind deliberately, for the express purpose of denying us our princess. Of denying us shared power. Sasuke not only allows this misperception to fester, he fuels it. He taunts us toward war. Already, there are skirmishes between the Uchiha's and the Haruno's. Vampires have been destroyed in anger. Militias are being formed. Soon it will be all-out war."

"Vampires have been destroyed because I didn't come back with Sasuke? While I was wasting time mucking stalls, my relatives have been getting staked? Why didn't you come get me?" Zabu fidgeted. "I am not strong, Sakura, like you ... I feared Sasuke's wrath ... He told me that you were not to come to Romania, not to know that he lived. But the situation has gone too far. I cannot allow more Haruno to be lost, just be-cause I am afraid to defy his decree. I had to come for you."

I squeezed my uncle's hand, almost as though I was the older, more experienced vampire. "Well, at least you did the right thing in the end. I promise I'll do my best to protect you from Sasuke's 'wrath.'"

"Indeed, I trust that you are the one force capable of bringing back the benevolent side of Lucius. I stake my existence on it—and the fate of our people. For in a war with the Uchiha's . . . well, in the time of peace, which began with your betrothal ceremony, we Harunos have allowed ourselves to soften. If this war cannot be averted, I fear that the Harunos, for all our current outrage, will be no match for the Uchiha."

"How bad might it be for our family?"

"Obliterated," Zabu said glumly.

"So if I can't convince Sasuke, in a last ditch effort, to admit that he loves me and honor the pact. . . ?"

"The Haruno, I fear, will soon be no more. Sasuke, as he is now, cannot be counted upon to show much mercy, I fear." I leaned my head against the seat back, letting it all sink in. My new to-do list: Control angry Haruno vampires. Win back no-longer-destroyed, reluctant, rampaging fiancé. Stop imminent war.

I fingered the bloodstone at my throat. I was up for the challenge. I had no choice.

The plane hit some turbulence, and we jolted sharply, several times. So sharply that several passengers yelped.

Zabu grabbed my hand and smiled. "Welcome back to Romania, Princess Sakura."


	54. Arriving In Romania

GIVEN ALL THAT Sasuke had told me about living in castles and eating the finest foods and having his clothes tailor-made, I was a bit surprised to find myself bumping along the rutted roads of rural Romania in a battered Fiat "Panda," which huffed and puffed along on only three of its four cylinders.

"Urn, Zabu," I said, clutching the dashboard as my uncle once again ground the gears into submission. "I thought we were vampire royalty."

Zabu nodded to me. "Indeed. Excellent bloodline."

"Then .. . what's with the car?"

"Oh. That. Do not think this vehicle representative of our heritage. It is just a temporary manifestation of our some-what . . . er, reduced circumstances." He wrestled with the non-power steering, trying to avoid a rut as we climbed into the Carpathians. The mountains stood in sharp contrast to the Appalachians that rolled gently across Pennsylvania. Indeed, the Carpathians, steep, rocky, and jagged, shamed the Appalachians' claim to mountain-hood. From time to time, the road would veer out over sheer, breath-snatching drops, then snake back into dense, shadowy forests, where Zabu assured me bears and wolves still prowled, only to emerge in brightness, cutting through small towns that seemed carved out of stone and fixed in the Middle Ages.

Crooked cottages, snug little chapels, and busy taverns hugged narrow streets. I would glimpse these things, then, in the blink of an eye, we would plunge back into the wilderness.

I could see why Sasuke had missed his homeland: the fairy-tale villages; the sense of time stopped; the pervasive impression that one was within a hidden mystery; a secret, wild enclave forgotten in a modern world.

"Hold on," Zabu advised, turning off the main road from Bucharest and bumping onto an even narrower lane. We jerked along, and my head thumped the Pandas low ceiling. "Ouch." I rubbed my curls. "Is this really the best we can afford?"

"Well, I've told you. The clan has hit some hard times in recent years. We sold the Mercedes years ago. The Fiat's very reliable, though. I have no complaints. None at all."

I had a few complaints. How was I supposed to assume my proper place as a vampire princess when my mode of transportation was the size of a golf cart, with an engine that sounded like it belonged to a tabletop fan. We rode in silence for quite some time, until we crested a rise that revealed, below us in the distance, a large cluster of terra-cotta-colored roofs glowing in the sunset. "Sighisoara," Zabu announced.

I leaned forward, staring out the windshield with eager eyes. So we had arrived, finally, in Sasuke's home territory. This was where he had grown up, become the man I'd grown to love. "Will we drive through?"

"Yes," Dorin said. "Anything you wish."

I had noticed that my uncle's demeanor toward me had changed subtly since we'd landed in Bucharest.

He had become more formal. More deferential. I considered telling him that he didn't have to treat me like a princess just because we weren't in the United States anymore. Then I realized, no, I would assume my rank. I would need deference; I would need to project authority if I was to achieve what I meant to achieve. I was in a Fiat Panda, but I was still a princess. "Please, show me," I urged.

"Of course." Zabu drove us into the heart of the city, and I gazed, enchanted, at arched stone passageways leading to twisting alleys, at cramped and crowded stores whose special-ties—breads and cheeses and fruits and vegetables—spilled out onto the sidewalks, and at the seventeenth-century clock tower that served as the city's heartbeat, striking the hour as we passed. Six o'clock.

At each spot that captured my notice, I wondered. Had Sasuke strode this street? Made a purchase at that store? Listened to the deep tolling of the clock, realizing that he needed to be somewhere, ducking his tall frame beneath one of those stone arches to keep an appointment in a hidden byway? This—this was a place where Sasuke would not seem out of place, even in his velvet coat, his fitted trousers.

"Are you hungry?" Zabu asked. "We could stop for a moment, before the entire merchants close for the day."

"It's just six," I noted. "Is it, like, the local custom to shut down so early?"

Zabu pulled the car to the curb. "No. It is not always this way. But the people of this region have lived in the company of vampires for many generations. They keep the pulse of the clans. They have heard rumors of a coming war, and know that there will be thirsty, angry vampires about, seeking the fuel of blood—and recruits for our undead armies . . . They will not linger in the streets after dark without good reason."

A shiver shook through me, too. Although I was now a member of the vampire clans myself, I could definitely sympathize with the local people's fears. "So even the regular people are affected by the tension ..."

"Indeed," Zabu said. "They mourn the passing of nearly two decades of peace. For a time, we seemed to have reached a detente with the humans, too. That was largely the doing of Sasuke. He was a good ambassador for us. So charming . . . Even those who would cross themselves at the name Uchiha could hardly dislike him. But now, of course, they know that he is changed ..."

Zabu room. The decor was simple—a few scarred old tables scattered about a wooden floor—but the smell was amazing. "Here. We will buy papanasi: cheese dumplings rolled in sugar. A local delicacy."

"Sugared cheese?" I was skeptical.

"I ate the vegan birthday cake," Zabu noted. "Trust me; this will be a treat by any comparison." I couldn't argue with that. We stepped up to the counter, and the elderly proprietor rose from a stool with effort, greeting Zabu.

"Buna."

"Buna." Zabu nodded. He held up two fingers. "Doi papanasi."

"Da, da,"the old man said, beginning to shuffle away. Then he noticed me and stopped abruptly, his swarthy, weathered face growing visibly pale. He pointed at me with a shaking hand, wide eyes darting to Dorin. "Ea e o fantoma..."

"Nu e!"Zabu shook his head. "Not a ghost!"

"Ea e Uchiha!"the old man insisted. "Mizubuki!"

I understood the words Mizubuki Haruno—and the gist of the conversation, however unfamiliar the language.

"Da, da,"Zabu agreed, seeming to grow impatient with the man, waving him off. "Comanda, va rog. Our food, please."

The man hobbled away, but continued to glance over his shoulder at me as he prepared our papanasi.

"He recalls your mother," Zabu whispered to me. "He thinks you are her ghost. should get used to that."

I was both flattered and vaguely uneasy to be mistaken for my birth mother. I realized, with a jolt, that this man believed, beyond a doubt, that I was a vampire. He had been raised with the reality of vampires.

He had been alive when my parents had been destroyed. Perhaps he had taken part. . . . Now, standing in his shop, I knew from the old man's suspicious eyes that I was not just a curiosity; I was a potential threat. I felt vulnerable suddenly, high in the Carpathians, beyond the protection of Mom and Dad, alone in a claustrophobic shop with an uncle I barely knew and a stranger who considered me a bloodsucking fiend, possibly fit for destruction.

The old man handed Zabu our food, and my uncle paid, handing over a few coins. The proprietor continued to eye me warily.

"Come along," Zabu said, guiding me toward the door. "Try not to be shaken by this. Of course some of the older people will recognize you. You look exactly like her. It will take a while for them to understand that you are her daughter and have returned home."

We left the shop, and I stared at the street, trying to think of this unfamiliar place as "home."

"We should go," Zabu gently urged. "It is growing dark, and the road is dangerous."

I folded myself into the little car and tried the papanasi, biting down on the crisp sugared dumpling to release the warm, gooey cheese. "Mmm ..." I closed my eyes and savored the treat, braver and comforted with warm food in my stomach.

"Good?" Zabu seemed pleased. He put the car in gear and pulled out into the street, which was nearly empty now.

"Very good," I said, reaching into the paper sack for an-other. "Much better than vegan cake."

"That is Sasuke's favorite, you know," Zabu said. "He likes them from that particular shop best." I slowly licked the sugar from my fingers, watching the city pass by my window. Sasuke could have been there. I could have walked into that shop and seen the man I'd been mourning alive and well.

"Does Sasuke live very near here?" I ventured. "How close are we, exactly? Minutes? A half hour?"

"Very close," Dorin said, glancing at me. He sounded a bit nervous. "You . . . you're not thinking of swinging by, are you?"

"Just to see his home ..." A sudden apprehension gripped me. Apprehension and excitement. "Will he be there, do you think?" Do I want him to be there? Am I ready?

"I don't believe so," Zabu guessed, and I felt a little wave of relief. As much as I desperately wanted to see Sasuke, I knew I should get ready first. Not only did I need to clean up from the plane ride, but I had to prepare mentally. To brace myself to face the Sasuke whom Zabu had described on the plane.

The Sasuke who had destroyed his uncle, who was precipitating a war and scaring the local townspeople. The Sasuke who was believed capable of "obliterating" my family, without mercy.

"He's been out with his troops a lot lately," Zabu added. "In the field."

"Are we preparing?" I asked, concerned by this latest revelation.

"Somewhat. .." Zabu drifted off. "No, not really. Not in an organized way like Sasuke. He is a warrior creating an army. We are more like your American colonists: earnest, if ill-prepared, vampires forming informal militias."

I gazed out at the rugged landscape. The deeper we drew into the Carpathians, the more profoundly I recognized the mountains as my dreamscape. I could hear my birth mother's voice in my mind, singing to me. Being silenced. This was a beautiful place. But a severe, untamed place, too. "We will need more than 'informal militias,'" I muttered, staring out the passenger side window into the gathering darkness.

"We will need to prepare, too." If only I knew what that meant. If only I'd been raised as a warrior, not a vegan in a farm overrun with stray kittens. Can I really help my Haruno kin?

"Look this way," Zabu urged, letting the Fiat drift to a halt on the side of the road.

I turned in my seat and sucked in my breath, confronted— assaulted—by a towering stone building. The phantasmagoric edifice where Sasuke had been raised, schooled with violence, reared on tales of his vampire lineage, and made fiercely aware of the Uchihas' proud place in the world.

"Wow."

We were parked on the edge of a precipice, overlooking a valley so steep, deep, and narrow that it looked as if a giant had created it with one sharp whack from a mile-long cleaver. Sasuke's castle, black against the orange sunset, clung to the far escarpment, rising out of the hillside and seeming to claw up at the sky. Sharply pitched eaves, turrets like enormous spikes to jab the clouds, pinched and vaulted Gothic windows. It was an angry house. A house at war with the universe.

Did Sasuke really live there ?

We parked the car and stepped out to the very edge of the cliff, the better to examine this snaggle-toothed architectural expression of rage.

"Impressive, eh?" Zabu asked.

"Yes." But the word was thick in my throat. Looking at that house, I was scared. It was ridiculous to be scared of a building, and yet the sight of that castle struck a chord of raw fear in me. Am I scared of the house— or the person who can stand to in-habit it?

As Zabu and I watched, a light went on behind one of the windows. One single light, in a high window. My uncle and I exchanged glances.

"Could be the servants," Zabu surmised. "Or, then again, maybe the boy came home for the night."

"Let's go," I urged, grabbing my uncle's arm. Go, before I did something stupid. Like run right up to that castle and bang on the doors. Or run right home to Lebanon County and never look back. "Please. I want to go."

"Right behind you," Zabu agreed, hurrying for the car


	55. The Haruno estate

THE GOOD NEWS was the Haruno clan actually did have its own fairly impressive estate. The bad news was it was open to tourists four days a week. This was yet another manifestation of our "reduced circumstances," as Zabu liked to call what was, quite apparently, real economic distress.

"The tours don't start until ten a.m.," Zabu reassured me, helping me lug my suitcase into our musty mansion. He side-stepped a metal sign that instructed visitors: "no smoking! no flash photography!" in about seven languages. "We're very popular this year," Zabu added, like that was a great thing. "The Romanian tourism authority really stepped up the advertising. Motor coach traffic is up sixty-seven percent."

Good grief.

"Of course, there are private living areas,"Zabu added, seeing my disappointment. "The bedrooms and bathrooms are mostly off-limits. Although the occasional American finds his way to the private toilets. I suppose it's the unfamiliar foods.. . . At any rate, don't be alarmed if you open a door and find one of your countrymen perched there. It's embarrassing for every-one, yes. But not harmful, really. It's hardly an inconvenience, even. They're very good about flushing. For the most part."

Tourists? Pooping in my castle? I bet nobody pooped, unauthorized, at the Uchiha estate. . . .

"Zabu?"

"Hmm?" He was dragging my suitcase up a tall, curving, stone staircase. The bulb in a fake, electrified torch flickered on the wall, a cheap imitation of the actual fire that I was fairly certain blazed in Lucius's home. He would suffer no less than the real thing. I once again stroked the bloodstone at my throat, and the word unacceptable flashed through my mind. This was unacceptable. If things went as I hoped, and I really did come to lead this family, I would reclaim our castle for the Haruno's—not tourists. The idea excited me to a surprising degree. As we reached the highest landing, I surveyed the vaulted ceilings, the once majestic corridors. Yes, we could do better.

"What happens next?" I asked Zabu, following him down the hallway and into a cavernous bedroom.

Zabu dropped the suitcase with a thud. "Why, you need to meet the family. Everyone's very excited to dine with you. They'll be here soon." Images of Sasuke's "family" flashed through my mind.

"How many are coming?" I asked, hoping that I wouldn't have to confront too many of my vampire kin all at once.

"Oh, just twenty or so of our closest kin. We did not think it wise to overwhelm you on your first day here, but of course everyone is curious to see our long-awaited heiress. I suppose you'll want to clean up a little? Change clothes?" Zabu hinted.

"Yes," I said, grasping the opportunity to be alone for a moment. To reflect. To pull myself together. This was all happening so fast. I needed to think. Zabu moved through the room, snapping on lights. The space was dusty, dated, and drafty, but livable.

It was not too far gone from its former glory. Yet. "I hope you are comfortable here," Zabu said, tossing my bag on the four-poster bed. "I'll come back for you in about an hour. Take a nap if you like."

"Thanks."

"Oh! I almost forgot." Zabu trotted to a large wardrobe, opened the door, and pulled down a gown on a hanger. It was a bit faded but still beautiful. Silk that had no doubt once blazed bright crimson had mellowed to a richer, deeper red. "This was your mother's. I thought you might want to wear it for dinner. It is a big occasion, and I'm afraid we left so hurriedly that I gave you no chance to pack something formal."

As if in a trance, I moved to Zabu and ran my fingertips across the fabric. "I recognize this. From her photograph."

"Ah, yes, her portrait." Zabu smiled. "Mizubuki had many gowns, but this was her favorite. She loved the intense color— so like her personality. She wore this to so many lovely gatherings, in a different time, before the purge . . ." He looked for a moment as if he might cry, then brightened. "You will do it justice, Sakura, and usher in a new era for us. Perhaps we will all be happy again soon. Perhaps your mother's fondest dream—peace for the Uchihas and Harunos—will be made manifest after all."

I stroked the fabric again. "Are you sure it's okay? To wear it?"

"Not just 'okay,'" Zabu promised. "Appropriate. Perfect."

He left me alone then, and I gently laid the dress on the bed. I wore her necklace, I was about to slip into her gown, and I stood in her home. But could I live up to the legacy of Mizubuki Haruno? Was I a real princess, as I hoped, or just a ghost—a pale, insubstantial shadow of her—like the old man in the restaurant had believed?

Doubts won't help now, Saku. Sasuke believed you were just like her, in every way. . ..

Locating the bathroom, I stripped off the jeans and shirt Id worn on the plane and took a long, hot shower. Toweling off, I carefully removed the dress from the hanger, undid a row of seed-pearl buttons that ran down the back, and stepped into the gown, drawing it up around my body like an embrace from the past. A leftover hug from my mother.

It fit perfectly. As if it had been designed for me.

I gazed into a gilt mirror that stood in the corner of the room, watching my reflection by the light of a full, clear moon that shone like a quavery searchlight through a long bank of warped, leaded windows.

The collar of the dress was high, rising almost to brush my jaw, but the neckline plunged deep, showcasing the bloodstone at my throat. The gown curved over my small breasts, and then fell as sharply and abruptly as a waterfall cascading over a Carpathian cliff, ending in a sweep of silken train that swished like a whisper when I walked. Like the whispers that no doubt followed any woman who dared to wear this spellbinding dress.

This was a gown that made a statement about the woman who wore it. It told everyone who saw her, "I am powerful, and beautiful and just try to look away from me. I will be noticed."

I had no silver coronet, so I gathered my curls loosely be-hind my neck and allowed them to tumble freely down my back, glossy black hair upon glossy red fabric, staking my own more youthful, but still dramatic, claim to the gown.

The young woman I saw reflected in the mirror, her dark eyes glittering in the moonlight, really did look like a princess.

Strong. Determined. Unafraid.

There was a knock on the door, and Zabu called in to me, "Your guests have arrived. Are you ready?"

"Come in," I urged him.

Zabu poked his head in the room, and his merry, crinkled eyes snapped wide open. For a long moment, he simply stared at me, finally saying, "Yes. You are ready, indeed." Then he stepped aside, allowing me to walk through the door before him. I noted that he bowed to me, just slightly, as I passed


	56. Seeing Him Again

THEY WERE WAITING for me at the foot of the curved staircase, every face turned in my direction as I descended, and I watched as their looks changed from skepticism and concern to appreciation and wonder—and hope. And the fact that they were beginning to believe in me gave me confidence, even as it terrified me, too.

Who am I to be anyone's savior? Anyone's princess?

You are your mother's daughter. . . beautiful, powerful, regal. . .Zabu's reassurances and Sasuke ode echoed again in my mind, giving me courage.

One by one, my vampire relations approached to meet me as I paused at the foot of the staircase. Zabu introduced them, and as each of my Haruno kin—cousins close and distant— came near to bow or curtsy, I saw echoes of myself in the curve of a nose, the arch of an eyebrow, the slant of a cheekbone.

They were attired in good clothes, but I noted that the dresses were a bit outdated, the suits sometimes ill-fitting. What has become of us since my parents' destruction?

"Come," said Zabu when we had all been introduced. "Let us dine."

I led a small procession into a long and lofty dining room, chilly in spite of a fire that blazed in a cavernous fireplace, and, at Zabu's indication, claimed my seat at the head of a table glittering with silver and candlelight. We Haruno's were in difficult financial straits, but all the stops seemed to have been pulled out for my return.

"Sit, sit," Zabu said quietly, pulling out my chair. "I am afraid I must serve . . . We are short on servants right now, and it is difficult to draw anyone from the village, anyhow, given the current state of things. No one wants to be working late at the Haruno's estate ..."

"It's fine," I reassured him, taking my seat.

Toasts were raised to me, in Romanian, and Zabu translated for me. To my health . . . to my return . . . to the pact. . . to peace.

A murmur went around the table as the last toast was concluded, and Zabu bent to speak to me. "They wish to hear from you. They are too eager to eat. You must tell them your plans."

For the first time since I'd donned the red silk dress and begun to settle into my new royal role, I felt a flash of genuine panic. I didn't prepare a speech. I should have prepared a speech. What can I tell them? God, what do I even plan to do? "I can't do it," I whispered to Zabu, leaning close to him. "I don't know what to say."

"You must, Sakura," Zabu begged me. "They will expect it. They will lose confidence if you do not."

Confidence. I cannot afford to lose their confidence. And so I rose, facing my family, and began, "It is my honor to be among you tonight, back in our ancestral home . . ." What can I say? "It has been too long."

Zabu translated for those who didn't speak English, glancing at me now and then with more than a little dismay in his eyes. He knew I was struggling, and looking at my relatives ringed around the table, I saw uncertainty creeping back into their minds, too. I was losing their trust as quickly as I'd gained it.

"I intend to ensure that the pact is honored," I added. "As your princess, I promise I will not let you down."

"Tell me, Saku'' someone began. A deep voice.

Oh, thank goodness. . . a question.

"Yes?" I searched the faces, trying to find the speaker in the dim, candlelit room.

"How do you intend to keep the bargain? Stop the war? Be-cause I understand the Uchiha have no interest in the pact anymore."

The voice came from behind me. The familiar voice.

I spun around, knocking over my chair, to see Sasuke Uchiha standing in the doorway, leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest, a bitter smile on his face.

"Sasuke." My heart stopped in my chest, and all the blood drained from my face. It was Sasuke. Alive.

Standing not twenty feet from me. How many times had I dreamed of seeing him again? Dreamed of touching him? How many times had those dreams nearly devastated me with their futility? But now, he was so close. . . .

His smile faded, as if he couldn't maintain his coolly ironic demeanor at the sight of me, and I heard him murmur, just faintly, "Sakura . . ." In that one word, I perceived longing, relief, tenderness, eagerness. The same emotions I was experiencing. He hesitated, uncertain, one hand extended as though he might approach me.

"Sasuke," I repeated, blinking at him, as the reality of his existence slowly sank in. "It's really you." When I said that, Sasuke's hand dropped to his side, and he regained his ironic smile. "Indeed, there is only one," he joked bitterly, all traces of tenderness fading. "And the world is better for it."

I began to run for him, then, nearly tripping over the train of my gown, wanted to hurl myself at him, tackle him, and kiss him again and again for the joy of seeing him. And then scream at him for lying to me and abandoning me. But then I saw his face up close, and I stopped short, in midstride.

"Sasuke?"

It seemed as though he'd aged years in the few months we'd been apart. All vestiges of the American teenager were gone—and not just because he'd resumed wearing his tailored pants, his velvet jacket. His black hair was longer, drawn into a care-less ponytail. His mouth was set more firmly. His shoulders had broadened. Stubble shadowed his usually clean-shaven jaw. And his eyes were blacker than ever, almost as if they had no soul behind them, animating them.

Behind me, the Haruno's seemed frozen in place, to find their enemy in their midst.

"Security's a tad lax," Sasuke noted. He pushed off from the door frame and strode past me into the room, not meeting my eyes, assessing the obviously timeworn furnishings with the same disdain he'd exhibited months ago in our farmhouse kitchen. Only this time, he seemed not just arrogant, in the innocent way of someone who's known nothing but privilege, but deliberately dismissive. "I was going to sign up for the tour," he added. "But I couldn't wait until ten a.m. to see you, Sakura."

I stared at him with a mixture of dismay and fury. He knew that using my American name was an insult in this place. And he was being so cold. "Don't speak to me like that," I told him. "It's cruel, and I know you are not cruel."

He still refused to meet my eyes, deliberately averting his gaze. "Am I not?"

"No." I moved toward him, refusing to let him control every moment of our meeting. This wasn't a high school dance, where he could assume the lead. He was in my family's home. Shaken as I was to see him so unexpectedly, to find him so altered, I would not be cowed, like my relatives behind me, quaking in their chairs. "You are not cruel, Sasuke."

We were standing close to each other now, near enough that I could smell that aromatic, exotic cologne he'd gotten away from wearing sometime during his transformation into an American student. Sasuke the warrior prince was back, in every aspect. Or so he wanted me to believe.

"Why did you come here?" Sasuke asked me, softly so that my relatives would not hear. He still didn't meet my gaze. "You must leave, Saku."

"No. No, Sasuke, I won't."

He turned to me then, and there was a flash of misery—of humanity—in his eyes, but it was momentary, and he stepped around me, putting physical and emotional distance between us again. I could tell that he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. To keep me at arm's length. At least, I hoped he was struggling. The coldness, the distance: They seemed so real.

"You were watching my house," he noted, circling the table like a hawk looking for the rabbit that didn't have the good sense to stay still. As he passed behind each of my vampire relatives, they cowered visibly. I wished, desperately, that they'd stop doing that.

"How did you know?"

"It's wise, on the eve of a conflict, to stay alert," Sasuke advised, voice growing even flintier as he talked of war, slipping into his role as a general. Slipping away from me. "Of course I have guards on the perimeter of my property. Your family pesters me endlessly, whining about the unfulfilled pact, claiming that I never wanted to share power . . . And the more they say that, the more I realize, why share what I can take by force? I am not averse to a little spilled blood, if it achieves my ends."

"Sasuke, you don't mean that."

"Yes, I do," Sasuke said, placing his hands on the back of Zabu's chair. My uncle locked up with a full-body spasm. I knew he was terrified that Sasuke would destroy him, right then and there, for bringing me to Romania. "Have you ever known me to jest about power, Zabu?"

My uncle said nothing.

Sasuke leaned close, speaking right into Zabu's ear. "I shall deal with you later for defying me and bringing her here."

"Step away from him," I ordered. "You're here to see me. Don't torment my family in our own home."

Sasuke surveyed the room again. "When all this is mine, I shall have to make some serious changes. Giving tours. It shames all of vampiredom!"

I stared at him, refusing to become visibly upset or tearful, even, over just how callous he was acting. The Sasuke before me was even icier and more inaccessible than he'd been after Madara had ordered him beaten so severely. Sasuke. . . where is my Sasuke?

"I want you to leave now, Sasuke," I told him, deliberately calm. "I won't talk with you when you're like this."

He arched his eyebrows. "Is this not the reunion you hoped for, Saku? Is this not what you came thousands of miles for? Are you disappointed to find your family weak—and your former betrothed more despicable than ever?"

"You can't make me hate you," I said. "No matter how hard you try. I know what you're doing. I know you're trying to drive me away from you. You think you're beyond redemption because you destroyed Madara. You're convinced that you're just like him—or worse because you betrayed your family. But you're not like Madara." I dared to stroke his arm. "I know you."

Sasuke pulled away. "Do not touch me like that, Sakura!"

"Why not?" I asked, dropping my voice so my family would not hear. "Because you're afraid that you'll lose control, like you did in my bedroom back home?"

"No," he countered. "Because I fear that I shall lose control as I did with my uncle."

"Sasuke, you had to do that."

When I said that, his eyes shifted, and he glanced at my relatives, still sitting in unsettled silence, staring at our ex-change. "Come with me." He clasped my elbow in his firm hand and led me across the room, out of earshot of my family. "We speak of private things in front of others. It is not right."

We stopped in front of the fireplace, and the firelight cast soft, flickering shadows across Sasuke's face, making him look younger again. I nearly reached out to touch his cheek. But his eyes were still too distant. Too black. "I shall tell you this, and then you shall pack your bags and go home, Sakura."

"I m not going—"

"You think you know me," he spoke over my objection, still clutching my arm, fingers digging in. "For some reason, although I clearly abandoned you, although I obviously wanted you to think that I was gone

... in spite of this, you cling to some desperate hope that there is a future for us. It is time I disavow you of that, once and for all, because we are no longer in civilized Pennsylvania, attending high school, playing at war on a basketball court. This is a war,Saku."

"It doesn't have to be, Sasuke. I know you love me."

"The Uchiha's never acted in good faith, Saku," Sasuke continued, his mouth a grim line. "We had a plan. For you."

"A . . . plan?" My throat started closing something was telling me that something he was about to say was going to hurt me.

"Yes. I was to win you over, marry you—innocent as you were, an American teenager ignorant of vampire culture—and bring you back to Romania. The pact fulfilled, we would have waited a reasonable time, until none could accuse the Uchihas of violating our part of the obligation—"

"And then?" I already know. My eyes started to water up, but I refused to cry or shed a tear in front of him.

Sasuke stared deep into my eyes. "And then we would have discreetly dispatched you. In secret. Acting as though we mourned your loss, but quietly pleased to have the last, inconvenient Haruno princess out of the way."

"No, Sasuke." I shook my head, horrified. I wouldn't believe it. "You wouldn't have done that."

"Oh, Sakura. You are still so absurdly innocent. Do you think the Uchihas ever intended to share their sovereignty with an enemy?"

No. Of course they hadn't."How . . . how was it supposed to happen?"

"I was not privy to those details," Sasuke said. "But perhaps by my hand ... I would have had so many opportunities, alone with you in our castle."

No, Sasuke, not you.

He gazed into the fire. "It was so perfect for us, that you had been raised in America. In their attempt to keep you safe, the Harunos actually doomed you. A true vampire princess would have understood the risks of marrying me. She could have protected herself, remained always alert. But you, you would have come with me willingly, never even suspecting . . ."

I took a ragged breath, forcing myself not to cry out, cognizant of my family not far away. They were watching. I had to maintain my composure, although betrayal ripped through me. "You knew all this when you came to my parents' home? When you lived with us? When you kissed me?"

Sasuke, too, was aware of our audience. The misery that had seeped into his eyes was not reflected in his regal posture. "Oh, Sakura. . . when did I know? From the beginning? Only toward the end? I am not sure. Perhaps I was innocent myself at first. Or perhaps I just deceived myself, not wanting to see the truth. But there came a time, yes, before I kissed you, when I knew that I was complicit."

I choked back a sob, swallowing it down hard, keeping my shoulders straight. "I don't believe you."

"Does it not make sense, Sakura?" He glanced to my family. "Look at them. The Harunos are diminished. Madara could have dumped them easily and controlled them without the loss of a single Uchiha. Without a war. The only blood shed would have been yours. You were to be sacrificed in the interest of Madara's little coup."

"That was Madara's idea," I pointed out, desperate not to believe Sasuke capable of destroying me. He cared for me. I felt it in his kiss, seen it in his eyes. But he's dangerous, Saku. He doesn't want to be a Uchiha, but perhaps he always will be. "This was Uchiha's plan," I repeated. "Not yours."

"And when I saw the whole scheme in its entirety, I was thrilled by its simple brilliance. Does that sicken you, Saku? Because it should."

"You wouldn't have destroyed me, Sasuke," I insisted. "You love me. I know you do."

Sasuke shook his head. "Only enough to tell you that I would have destroyed you. That is as much as I can give. Now go home, Saku. Go home and despise me. I had hoped to leave you with a happier memory of me. But you have come here, and now I cannot even do that."

"I won't leave, Sasuke. If only for my family. The Haruno's need me." My eyes were about to pour over but once again I refused to cry. And I couldn't let my head hang low.

"No, Saku. You give them nothing but false hope. Look at you." His gaze traveled up and down the length of my body, and again his eyes came to life, this time with deep admiration. Admiration I'd seen there before. "You are beautiful. Amazing. Inspiring. They will fight harder, to think that they do so for their returned princess. To think, foolishly, that you have been wronged by the failure of the pact—when in fact I saved your life by breaking the pact. They will go on believing that they have been cheated out of peace and shared power, and they will rally to fight for you. But in the end, the Uchiha will prevail. Do not prolong their agony or increase their losses."

"They are already angry," I pointed out. "I can't change that. They want a war, too, unless the pact is fulfilled."

"If you tell them to yield to me, they will," Sasuke pointed out. "You are their leader. Tell them to submit to me, and then go home."

I hesitated for a moment, considering his one-sided bargain. If I told my family to yield, perhaps they really would. I was their leader. I could save lives. I fingered the bloodstone at my throat, hearing my birth mother. Don't do it, Sakura. . . . Don't make your first act one of submission, even to Sasuke.

Especially, now, to Sasuke. . .

"No," I said firmly. "You did destroy the pact, you are to blame for ruining the peace, and the Harunos will not kneel before a ... a bully."

Sasuke smiled at that, a small shadow of his old mocking smile. "Is that what you think me to be, Saku? That I am a bully, like pathetic Kiba Inuzaku?"

"You're worse," I said.

His smile grew sad. "Indeed I am. Kiba, for all his faults, for all his small cruelties, never even dreamed of destroying a woman as magnificent as you."

I was still struggling to find the right words to reply when Sasuke turned on his heel and left us. _" Your also the only man I loved and broke my heart just like the rest of them." _But Sasuke heard me and slightly turned his head slightly smirking and winked.


	57. My Savior

AFTER MY FAMILY departed, none of us having even touched the feast that had been carefully prepared to celebrate my return; I retreated to my room, where I sat for several hours, pulling a chair up to the leaded windows, just staring into the darkness. I couldn't even think about sleeping.

What can I do to save my family? To save Sasuke? Can I still save Sasuke— or is he really beyond redemption, as he believed?

Outside, a wolf howled in the mountains. I had never heard a live wolf cry out before, only in movies or on TV, and the sound, carrying across the wilderness, was so mournful that it nearly made me cry.

Everything about my trip was summed up by that miserable, beautiful, poignant sound. Sasuke was alive—but he might as well have been gone. My heart still ached, perhaps more, because I had entertained such high hopes for our reunion. Sasuke had been right. It had not gone as planned. I was devastated to find him so changed.

And the revelation about the plot to destroy me .. . that had shaken me to the core. Yet I didn't believe that Sasuke had been complicit, as he'd said. The plan was Madara's strategy. Perhaps there had been a time when Sasuke, twisted and nearly crushed under Madara's thumb, would have been capable of entertaining the possibility of such a dark act. But he'd changed in the United States. As he'd said himself, he'd seen a new way. He had told me, "For my children, it could have been different ..."

I also recalled his words earlier that very evening. "I saved your life by breaking the pact."

By refusing to honor the clans' agreement, Sasuke had actively striven to save me from Madara's scheme, willingly risking his own life. He had known that Madara would try to destroy him for insubordination.

Sasuke would always protect me.

For all my parents' warnings about the Uchihas ruthlessness, for all Sasuke's own vehement assertions that he was dangerous to me, I knew differently.

But how could I make Sasuke believe that he would never do me harm? That we still belonged—and would always be-long—together?

There were no answers in the blackness outside the window, so I rose from my seat and opened my suitcase to unpack. At the very least, I will not run home, as Sasuke desired.

As I unfolded my clothes, my copy of Growing up Undead, which I'd tucked in at the last minute, tumbled to the floor. Picking it up, I thought back to the day I'd discovered the manual near my bedroom door, Sasuke's bookmark gleaming in the morning sun. I'd hated the gift, then. But Sasuke had been right. In spite of its cloying tone, the book had been a good guide through a confusing time. An accurate resource. Almost like a confidante, when there'd been no one else with whom I could discuss the changes taking place in my body, my life. Sit-ting on the bed, I opened to the final chapter, which I'd purposely overlooked as my feelings for Sasuke had grown stronger and stronger.

Chapter 13: "Love Among Vampires: Myth or Reality?"

Yet my heart sank as I began to read the guide's sobering advice.

"It is best not to harbor unrealistic notions about love among vampires. Vampires are romantic, even affectionate, on occasion. But in the end, we are a ruthless race! Try to accept that vampire relationships are based upon power and, yes, passion— but not the human concept of 'love.' To begin trusting in 'love' — as many young vampires are foolishly wont to do— is to put yourself at risk of serious peril!"

No.

I slammed the book shut and tossed it aside, knowing that it had served its purpose. I no longer needed its advice. Because this time, the guide-—however well respected, however venerable—was wrong. I knew the truth. Sasuke loved me.

I realized, in a moment of vivid clarity, that I was willing to stake my life on that conviction. That I would stake my life on it, that very night.

But before that I need to go for a walk.

* * *

><p>The night was warm and the stars shone high in the air. I was walking in the castle gardens; there was no guards, no vampires, nobody. I was kind of grateful for the silence so I collect my thoughts on how to deal with my clan and stopping war.<p>

I sat down on a park bench with my knees pulled to my chest collective gathering my thoughts. I was wearing jeans and an old V-neck, so it was no surprise when a teenage looking vampire approached me as if I was some random girl and not the queen.

"How can I help you?" I asked with a smile on my face, but in reality I was terrified. _How do I always find myself in these types of predicaments? _

"I was just passing by when I notice a beautiful unfamiliar girl sitting here daydreaming." The tall boy said, he was lean with brown locks that stop at his shoulders and he had nice brown eyes.

"Well I'm Saku once again what can I get for you?" I said still trying to hide my fear. "Well I could show you around I'm not quite ready to go home yet." I looked at him; usual in this situation if I said no then I would end up getting abused. _Just play along Saku you will get your chance to escape without get harm._

"Ok it won't hurt to go out with you for a little bit." He smiled at me and we entered the city.

About 30mins later after showing me a little bit of night life not really a lot since we are on the brink of war, we managed to find a bar and were now sitting at the bar drinking some type of vampire wine. I guess it was alcohol mixed with…..blood?

My guard was completely let down I found out the guy name was Hiroshi and he was really funny. And told me old stories about the Haruno's, also mentioning funny tours throughout my castle. About 30mins later we left.

"Okay, I have one more place I'll like to take you." He leaded me through the woods it wasn't that far from the city but it was kind of stranded. We walked a little bit more into the forest for about 5mins. We arrived at this small nice cabin. He opened the door for me revealing a nice comfy living room and kitchenette.

The living room had a big table with paper scattered on the table, I picked up one piece of paper. It looked a paper of ideas for a new touring project and things to add into it. "Is this your job?" I asked him at looking at more pictures and ideas. "Yeah I and a couple people are the tourist and we come up with ideas."

"That's cool, but why did you bring me here?" I asked sitting down the paper neatly. _"Fuck I'm so stupid this is where he rapes me." _

"You're a beautiful girl and I'm a one-night stand type of guy…" He walked towards me gently brushing my hair back, and leaning in for a kiss, his soft lips gently touch mine, he pulled me in closer and I kissed back. _Maybe I should just let this happen. _

He caresses my stomach softly with his hands. All of a sudden images of Sasuke pop up, I felt like I was cheating on him and I pushed Hiroshi back. He smirked at me which'd confused me, randomly I felt my legs weaken and I feel on the couch behind me.

"I figured you would have doubts and not want to do it, so I spiked your drink and now it's kicking in. don't worry sweetheart you won't remember this tomorrow. " He took off his shirt and came down to kiss me on the neck. He was on top of me slightly grinding on top of me. My body was to drowsy and weak to fight back. _So this is it I'm about to lose my virginity to a man I don't love. "Why are you so surprise Saku? Some guy is always hurting you." _My inner responded to my thoughts. _I wished I could've been at least Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun I love you and i…I wish you were here to safe me._

Hiroshi had my shirt and bra off suckling my nipple. He kept my nipple in his mouth but, his fingers traveled down to my button on my jeans.

He realized my nipple and went to my ear, "Are you ready?" He asked, I didn't reply I kept my composure and ignored him. He just chuckled softly to himself.

He unbutton my jeans slowly sliding them down. We had eye contact with each other. He had an lustful look but I doubt my eyes had the same look. "You know your saying no in your had but, I guarantee you'll be my bitc-"

His sentence was cut off by the glass shattering from the window. When I looked over I saw a man his skin was grayish color, his nose had a black star on it, he had wings spreading throughout his back that look like claws, his hair was long about little past his shoulder and it was spiked blue. He picked up Hiroshi by his neck; Hiroshi started squirming around trying to get out of the man's grasp. "I dare you to finish that sentence." The….man? Said. "He continued to squeeze Hiroshi neck until he stopped moving. "Don't you ever touch that cherry blossom again, are I'll personally cut you in have while you're alive cut out insides and as you die let you watch your insides be eat by a dog. Do we having an understanding with each other?" Hiroshi slowly nodded his head. The man threw Hiroshi onto the wall and walked towards me. My body was too weak to move away from the man.

"Who…who are you?" The man picked me up bridal style and carried me to the window. Before he jumped out he slightly turned his head.

"Sasuke Uchiha."


	58. Red Riding Hood

We were flying Sasuke used his wings so that we could get to my room faster and easier. I could see all of Romania as we flew by fast. He landed on my bedroom balcony but, still didn't let his tight grip go. He was carrying me bridal style as he open my balcony door leading into my room. He walked over to my bed and he sat me down gently.

He was about to turn away and leave, but I grabbed his wrist my head was lowered so he couldn't see my tears. He sighed before sitting next to me on the bed; he gently grabbed my chin and lifted it up to meet his face. He transformed back into his normal self his eyes looked softly at me. He wiped away my tears and pulled me into a hug, "Stop crying Sakura you'll be okay." I pushed him away and stood up facing him, as the tears still rolled down my face.

"I love Uchiha and I've been saving myself for you to, so why can't you see that to?"

"Because Sakura you need to move on, I'm not the same guy I use to be Sakura as a matter a fact I was never that guy how come you can't see that?"

"STOP ACTING LIKE THAT THE Sasuke I KNOW IS COCKY, SMART, FUNNY, ROMANTIC, CHARMING!" I couldn't hold it in anymore I was getting so tired of him acting bipolar.

"Sakura I'm still cocky and smart, but the guy you use to see in me isn't there anymore realize that before you keep hurting yourself." He walked towards the balcony and was about to jump, before I grabbed him again. "Don't go Sasuke-kun I keep getting hurt and I need a shoulder to cry on right now please?" He sighed before walking towards my bed and lying down; I shyly walked towards him and laid next to him, he pulled me into his embrace with his armed wrapped around my waist and my head on his chest.

"Go ahead cry…let it all out."

And I did I cried about my past boyfriend, I cried about Naruto raping, I cried about Ino not being there for me, I cried about all the times Sasuke denied me for Karin, and cried about all the times Sasuke hurt me emotionally.

He rubbed my hair until I feel asleep in his warm but also strong embrace.

* * *

><p>When I awoke Sasuke was gone, I sighed heavily to myself <em>It's time to get to work. No more thinking or crying about the past it time to move forward<em>

* * *

><p>UNABLE TO LOCATE more appropriately majestic stationery in the middle of the night, I inked my abdication note on the back of a tourist pamphlet describing our ancestral home's amenities—see a real dungeon! explore three parapets!—that I found near the front door.<p>

I wrote,

Dear family,

It is futile to wage war against the Uchihas. I have decided that it is in our best interests for me to return to the United States—to step down as your princess. But my final act as your sovereign is to order every Haruno to submit without struggle to Uchiha rule. I am bringing our clan under Sasuke Uchiha's power so that we may have peace. Henceforth, you will be his subjects.

This is my command, issued at midnight, June 9, and effective at6:30 A.M. this same day, just before my official abdication at 7:00 A.M.

Sakura Haruno

I placed the note on the long dining room table, still littered with plates and goblets from my aborted feast, where I felt fairly certain Zabu would find it at breakfast. The pamphlet looked ridiculous propped against a tarnished silver candle-stick, and I hoped that at least my words sounded official.

Then again, if anyone ever read my directive, I was dead, anyway. The fate of the clans would no longer be my problem.

That won't happen, Saku. . . .

* * *

><p>I had kept my gown on, wanting to present myself before Sasuke as regal and powerful, which made it difficult to shift gears in the cramped Panda. The dress's train kept getting caught in the clutch, but I managed to maneuver out of the parking lot and onto the skinny, convoluted road that twined like a<p>

poisonous vine toward Sasuke's castle.

I was glad that I had been so acutely aware of Sasuke's home—its proximity to my ancestral estate, its horrible grandeur—when I had ridden with Zabu, because I was able to retrace the route, even though the way was confusing in the pitch-black mountains. Or maybe I got lost a few times, be-cause the trip seemed to take forever. But eventually, I saw the castle's jutting spires stabbing at the full moon, and I turned up the lane, which was nearly vertical, interrupted by hairpin turns that sprang up in the darkness like jack-in-the-boxes, forcing me to hit the brakes again and again, so as not to fly off the sharp drops that appeared to my left and right at gaps in the thick forest.

"Come on," I repeatedly encouraged the Panda, patting its steering wheel, willing its struggling engine onward, certain that it was about to give up.

The pavement ended, dropping off into dirt, and still we climbed.

Finally, just as I had begun to believe that the mountain could go on forever, a stone-and-iron gate loomed before me, standing at least eight feet tall. Why didn't I count on that? I stopped the car and yanked the emergency brake as hard as I could, with visions of the poor Panda disappearing down the vertical road and plunging driverless into the ravine, never to be seen again. Hiking up my dress so my train would not drag on the dirt road, I strode to the gate and ventured to tug on the heavy iron ring that served as a handle, certain that the exercise was futile.

To my surprise, though, the gate swung back an inch or so. I tugged harder, struggling against its weight, and managed to pry it open just enough to slip inside. So much for Sasuke's much-vaunted security system.

I ventured a few steps onto Uchiha land, and the gate swung shut behind me with a loud, metallic clang like an ominous gong in the silent forest. I glanced behind myself, immediately feeling vulnerable, closed off from my car—and closed in with what? Vampires, definitely . . . and maybe scarier things? I remembered the howl of the wolf. And dogs. What if Sasuke kept guard dogs on patrol?

Should I push the gate again, try to open it, get back in the car?

But I had a terrible feeling that I was sealed inside. Besides, I had no real intention of turning back.

Before me, I could barely discern the footpath, even in the moonlight that filtered through thick trees. I had no choice but to go forward, though, so I squared my shoulders and began walking. With each step, I became more aware of the sounds of the forest. The snap of twigs in the distance, the rustle of leaves as some animal— Please, let it be some Romanian rodent—darted away, startled by my footsteps.

There were bigger things out there, too. I could hear them near me, and I picked up my pace, at first just walking faster, and then breaking into a trot, which was as fast as I could manage on the uneven dirt-and-stone path. Please, please, let the castle come into sight. My breath started coming so raggedly that the other sounds were shut out, but monsters were so active in my imagination that I didn't need to hear them to know that they were there, nipping at my heels. And then I stumbled.

But before I could fall to my knees, two pairs of hands gripped my arms and yanked me upright, hauling me roughly to my feet.

I didn't even have time to scream out loud. As my head snapped up to see who held me, I saw before me, bathed in moonlight, Sasuke. Standing a few feet ahead of me, arms crossed, blocking the path. My own arms were still tightly contained, and I glanced to my sides. Two young men—vampires, I presumed—pinioned me. "Let me go," I cried, trying to shake them off.

"Eliberatio!" Sasuke ordered them in Romanian. "Release her!"

My arms were freed, and I stood on my own, brushing myself off, as though they'd soiled me with their touch.

The young vampires waited for Sasuke's instruction, crowding me, clearly ready—eager—to recapture me.

But they were destined to be disappointed, much to my relief.

"Mergeti. Lasatine în pace," Sasuke said, apparently dismissing his guards, because they disappeared into the night.

Hearing him speak in a tongue familiar to him but so strange to my ears—he had almost never used Romanian while at our farm—long past midnight, in a remote and gloomy forest, only emphasized how foreign to me Sasuke had become, and some of my resolve wavered.

We stood facing each other in silence, his body closing off the path to his castle, and his guards, presumably, alert for my retreat. "How long were you following me?" I finally asked him.

"The headlights on your toy car are dim, but still visible from many miles away. Few people travel this way at night. The road is too perilous—and the destination far too treacherous."

"So that's why the gate was open. You knew I was coming."

"Indeed. I wanted to see how far you would take this ill-advised visit." He paced toward me, hands clasped behind his back. "I must admit, you came much farther than I ever anticipated. You are nearly at my home."

"I'm not afraid of the dark," I lied.

Sasuke advanced closer, looming before me. "There are wolves in these woods," he advised, leaning in to watch my face. "And they would find it difficult to resist one as tempting as you, I fear. Especially in that magnificent bloodred gown."

I glanced down at my dress as Sasuke circled around me, surveying me, in a parody of what he'd done months ago in my parents' barn, the day we'd met. He had changed since then—but I had, too. Gone were my dirty boots, my ragged T-shirt. Red silk glistened in the moonlight.

"Did you never read 'Little Red Riding Hood,' Saku?" Sasuke asked, still circling slowly, crowding and confining me. "Do you not know what happens to innocents who wander alone in dark forests?"

A weird thrill of terror mixed with anticipation shivered through me. Sasuke was too close—and not close enough. I couldn't quite see his black eyes in the darkness. I couldn't quite gauge his mood. Was he toying with me as prelude to a kiss— or the thrust of a stake?

You're betting your life on the former, Saku.

"I forget the story, Sasuke," I said. "It's just a tale for little kids."

"Oh, it is one of my favorite fables," he said, pausing be-hind me. I tensed, feeling vulnerable with him at my back. "The origins are lost in time," he continued. "And there are many adaptations. In some, the little girl is saved. But I particularly love the ending just the way Perrault related it in the classic version."

"How . . . how does that end?" I inquired, not moving.

" 'Grandmother, what big TEETH you have got!'" Sasuke recited, leaning so close over my shoulder that his lips brushed my ear, almost nipping at me. " 'All the better to eat you up with.' And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood—and ate her all up.'"

I shivered as he told the story, half from his nearness, and half from the clear relish with which he related the awful conclusion.

"Is that not a simple, satisfying ending, Saku?" He laughed softly.

"I like happier endings myself."

Sasuke laughed harder. "What could be happier—for the wolf? Why do humans always look at these things from the wrong perspective? Predators deserve our sympathy, too."

"I didn't come here to talk about fairy tales," I said, breaking the sinister spell. He was genuinely starting to unnerve me.

"Run along home then, Riding Hood," Sasuke said, taking my shoulders and steering me back toward the car. "It is late, and you are in danger of becoming wolf fodder. What would I write to your parents then?

That I allowed Saku to be devoured, torn limb from limb, after they were so hospitable to me?" I shuddered again, this time mainly from the cold, and turned around, shaking free of his grasp. "I want to go inside to talk. I came here to strike a bargain with you."

Sasuke paused, head cocked, bemused. "A bargain? With me? But you have nothing with which to bargain." I could tell that he was nevertheless intrigued. "Do you?"

"Yes. I think so."

"And this bargain . . . does it end with you returning to Pennsylvania, where you belong?"

"It could end with me leaving," I said. This world. Forever.

"You capture my interest," Sasuke admitted, touching my shoulder again. "And you tremble with the cold. I am a rude host, to taunt you in the frigid air, when you are unused to a Carpathian Mountain spring. Let us go inside, where I can infuriate and inspire loathing in comfort."

* * *

><p>We began to walk side-by-side down the path, Sasuke's feet sure on ground familiar to him, me unsteady and ill-dressed for a late-night hike. I wobbled slightly, and Sasuke reached out to steady me. After I regained my footing, he kept his hand at my elbow, and I felt that with that simple gesture, I had come one step closer to winning the Uchiha-Haruno war.<p>

Or perhaps not. Because when the massive wooden door to his castle swung shut behind us, sealing us in an imposing Gothic stone foyer that disappeared above me into blackness too high to be penetrated by a circle of twenty actual, flaming torches, Sasuke noted, "You know that you effectively declared war this evening. And now you are my first prisoner."

I spun around just in time to see him slam a long iron dead bolt home, locking us into his monstrous mansion.

"You're joking, right, Sasuke?"

It was the wrong thing to say. His eyes were flinty when they met mine. "The sad thing is, Saku, I had almost thought you had finally learned not to trust me tonight."

As I watched in horror, Sasuke reached behind his back and withdrew something that had apparently been concealed, tucked in his belt, the whole time wed been together alone in a dark Carpathian forest.

A stained, sharpened stake.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note:<strong>

**Okay guys so I have one more chapter left in this whole story, if you want to find out what happens i have to have at least 10-15 reviews that you. **

**I love you guys who always comment and supported this story i will give you guys credit in my last chapter.**

**Anyways thanks for reading!**

**Love, Percabeth4eva2014**


	59. Is This The End?

**Q/A : "**_**i thought Sakura already lost her virginity a couple of chapters ago?"**_

**Two people have asked this already but no Sakura lost her anal virginity not her actual virginity, also, I know that's gross but i want somebody else to take Sakura virginity with her permission. **_**I wonder that person is (;**_

_****Thank you all for reading my story the name of my epilogue is :Sasuke and Sakura Vampire Family****_

**Anyways enjoy this last chapter!**

* * *

><p>SASUKE TAPPED the rudimentary, but nonetheless potentially deadly, instrument against his palm. "I have done all that I could to keep us from this moment, but you refuse to cooperate. I will offer you one last chance, Sakura. I will slip the bolt, you will slip into the night, and my guards will ensure your safe return to your car. From there, you will fly home and forget this entire episode. That is my offer, on the table."<p>

As Sasuke spoke, his eyes had become completely black, the irises consuming the whites, as if he were some exotic nocturnal animal. The transformation was just as captivating and terrifying as it had been the first time I'd seen it back in my parents' dining room, when Sasuke had thirsted for the blood that would heal him. It took every ounce of my courage not to beg him to pull back the bolt, allowing me to run for safety. But I couldn't do that. Our short, intense, confusing relationship would come to its climax, for better or for worse, that night. I would not wait one day longer.

I mastered my voice with effort. "I'm not interested in your offer of flight," I said. I pointed at the stake.

"That is precisely why I am here. That in your hand is the crux of my bargain, too.

Sasuke watched me carefully, clearly caught off-guard.

"Did you expect me to be afraid, Sasuke?" I asked, hoping my eyes or my voice didn't betray just how scared I really was.

"Yes," he said. "As you should be."

"Maybe, for once, you were the one who was naive. Who underestimated just what I'm capable of?"

Sasuke hesitated, and the silence in the tomb like foyer was deafening, except for the occasional hiss and pop of the torches. "Let us talk," he said finally.

* * *

><p>Walking ahead of me, not waiting to see if I followed, Sasuke led me through a maze of passageways that opened into wider chambers, like a series of tunnels linking caves, sometimes ducking beneath stone lintels built at a time when men were much shorter than Sasuke Uchiha, sometimes mounting quick flights of steps that seemed to have no purpose. This was a castle designed not to welcome visitors, but to confound enemies. It wasn't a home. It was a lair. A stone spider web. As we traveled deeper into the edifice, the turns seemed to become tighter, the hallways more narrow, the steps steeper. I realized, with more than a bit of alarm, that I was completely lost. Completely at Sasuke's mercy. If things did not go as I hoped, I would never escape. My body would never even be found.<p>

He stopped so abruptly that I bumped into his shoulder as he reached to open a portal I hadn't even noticed in the wall. Twisting the knob and giving the door a push, Sasuke stepped back. "After you."

I eyed him warily. His eyes were no longer pure black, but they were still cold. I stepped past him.

"Thank you."

As Sasuke pulled the door shut behind him, I gazed around the chamber, then at Sasuke. "Sasuke . . . this is beautiful."

At the heart of the Uchihas labyrinth was a richly appointed study, a truly magnificent version of the stage set that Sasuke had cobbled together in our garage. A gargantuan, antique Turkish carpet smothered the stone floor, and the walls were lined with overflowing bookshelves—as I would have expected from Sasuke. Deep leather couches were cracked and worn, testament to the hours he'd no doubt spent poring over the works of Bronte and Shakespeare and Melville. Tucked among the books was one red trophy, with a basketball player arcing a ball that tripped off his gilt fingertips? Sasuke's award for winning a free-throw contest back in December. I turned to him, smiling, heartened that he'd retained a bit of his life as an American teenager. "You brought your trophy home."

Sasuke smiled, too, but in a caustic way. "That? Zabu rescued that. I keep it to remind me never to be an idiot again—indulging in ridiculous games when there is business to attend to."

I didn't believe him, but I let it go.

Shrugging out of his coat, Sasuke bent to pick up a log, tossing it into a guttering fireplace. Sparks rose in a shower, and the fire fluttered back to life. He had tucked the stake back into his belt, and I could have snatched it at that moment while he had his back to me and hurled it into the flames. . ..

"Do not even think you would be fast enough," Sasuke advised without even turning around, nudging at the logs with his booted foot, urging them to life.

"It never crossed my mind," I said.

Sasuke turned around, a knowing smile on his face. "Of course not." He retrieved the stake again, running his hand along it, testing its point on his fingertip.

"Sasuke—you don't really think you're going to destroy me tonight, do you?"

Instead of answering, Sasuke came over to me, taking me by the wrist, and pulled me to the very center of the room, where the complicated design of the carpet culminated in a pale, worn circle. "Look down," he ordered, voice suddenly very rough, his grip on my arm too tight for comfort. I did as I was told and saw a dark stain that spread across the fibers. Blood ... It didn't even look as though anyone had tried to clean it up. "Is that. . . ?"

"Madara. This is where I did it. This is where I destroy."

When I looked up again, tearing my gaze away from that stain to search Sasuke's face, I saw that his eyes were narrowed—and pure black again. We were so close that I could peer deep, deep into the wide irises, almost as if I could see his actual thoughts, read his mind directly through his eyes, as true vampires were supposedly able. . . . And the thoughts spinning through Sasuke's brain were so, so dark that I flinched. In his eyes, I could read my destruction.

"Sasuke, don't," I started to urge him, but in a split second, he was behind me, one arm firmly across my chest, my hands trapped in his, and the spike he'd been clutching in his hand up thrust under my breastbone, nearly piercing my skin, pricking the red silk of my gown. Stopping just in time. I held my breath, afraid to move.

"You said you had a bargain to strike," he growled. "Speak now."

"This is it," I managed to say, pressing myself against his chest, away from that spike. "I left a note telling my family that I've abdicated. But my last act was to order them to submit to your leadership without a struggle."

"That is not a bargain." Sasuke laughed. "That is submission."

"No." I shook my head, feeling my curls graze his stubbled chin. His arm was heavy and tense across my chest. In another time, under different circumstances, it would have been heaven to be held so tightly by him, in a way that could have felt protective. If not for the stake at my breastbone. "If you don't destroy me tonight, as you seem intent upon doing, I'll go home before Zabu wakes up and throw away the note. The war will go on."

Sasuke paused, clearly thinking. "You know I have no qualms about continuing the war."

"And you say you have no qualms about destroying me. About sacrificing me," I countered. "So just do it. Do it and prevent the war. I am sacrificing myself, Sasuke." I heard my voice rising in tandem with my emotions. "Just do it, if you're so goddamn hardened! So goddamn vicious! Do what you claim you were going to do all along!"

Fear and frustration and anger at his abstinence and changeability and refusal to accept our love for each other—feelings that had been harnessed in me for so long now-erupted to make me suddenly reckless, and I found myself pushing him hard, even though I knew the risks were tremendous. "Go ahead, Sasuke! Do it!" The tears started streaming down my face I tried not cry to make myself look weak but I knew he could see my watery eyes.

"I will do it," he swore, vehemence in his voice, and I felt him breathing hard, his chest heaving against my back. The stake pressed a touch more closely to my flesh, sharply, and I arched away from it. "Do not test me!" he cried.

"That is exactly what I'm doing," I said, gasping. When I spoke, the stake pricked at me, making my breath come short and ragged. I cried out a little and twisted my head against his shoulder, writhing away from the weapon, and he relented, slightly.

"I am testing you, Sasuke," I continued, struggling to reach him while he showed the faintest bit of vulnerability. "I am risking my life to prove that you are not Madara. That you are not damaged. That you love me too much to have ever destroyed me, let alone now. I am betting everything that you will spare me."

"I can't spare anyone!" Sasuke roared, his composure gone, abruptly and completely. His hand beneath my rib cage shook. "All of my options are cruel, Sakura! I destroyed my own uncle, for god's sake. I imperiled your parents—even as they tried to save me. My horse, destroyed. My mother, destroyed. My father, destroyed. You—no matter what I do, you are destroyed. I can't leave you behind—you won't let me. And I can't drag you into this...this world of mine, either. Everything— everything around me gets destroyed!"

He buried his face in my hair then, clearly spent, and his hand dropped away from my chest, the stake falling to the floor, rolling across the carpet, and I knew that I had won. I had gambled and won.

I turned around slowly, still trapped against Sasuke by his arm, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his head to my shoulder, comforting him. He allowed me to hold him that way, stroking his black hair, caressing his stubbled jaw, tracing the scar that no longer frightened me.

"Sakura," he said, voice unsteady. "What if I could have done it. . ."

"But you couldn't. I knew you couldn't."

"What if someday..."

"Never, Sasuke."

"No, never," he agreed, lifting his head from my shoulder and cradling my face in his hands, wiping at my eyes with his fingers. I hadn't even realized I'd been crying. I had no idea how long I'd been crying. "Not to you."

"I know, Sasuke."

He drew me in again, resting his head back on my shoulder, as we both composed ourselves. We stood that way for a long time, until Sasuke whispered, "There will always be a part of me that is treacherous, Sakura. That will never change. I am a vampire, and a prince at that. A ruler of a dangerous race. If you are to do this, you will have to understand that..."

"I don't want you to change, Sasuke," I promised him, drawing back so I could look into his eyes.

"And this world," he said. "I worry about you in this world. You will have enemies ... a princess does. And a vampire princess faces ruthless foes. Others will want your power and will not hesitate to do what I could not."

"You'll protect me. And I'm stronger than you think."

"Indeed, stronger than me," Sasuke admitted, managing a grudging half-smile, although he was clearly still shaken, just like me. "I did all that I could to have my way—to keep you safe from me and our kind—but you would have your way, like a true princess."

"I wanted you, Sasuke. I had to have my way."

We clung to each other in the center of the room, standing above the bloodstain that marked the passing of the vampire who'd tried to create in Sasuke a real monster. Behind us, the fire crackled, and I thought back to the Christmas dance, when I'd been transported to this very scene, as we'd held each other.

This—this had been the place I'd imagined.

Sasuke bent his head and touched his lips to mine, still cradling my face, and in the very heart of that stone labyrinth we kissed, tenderly at first, our lips barely meeting, again and again. Then Sasuke drew one hand up behind my head and another down to the small of my back, a gesture both protective and possessive, and kissed me more fiercely, and I knew that he was finally taking me for himself as his destined partner, for all time. That we would fulfill the pact.

He drew away, searching my face. All the softness was back in his eyes. I knew that I would see the warrior prince again, many times. He was still Sasuke Uchiha. But the hardness, the harshness, that was inside him would never again be directed at me. It never had been, really. Only in his imaginings and fears.

"This is eternity, Sakura," he said, both warning and imploring. "Eternity."

He was giving me one last chance to leave—and begging me not to.

I had no intention of going anywhere beyond that room or outside of his embrace. I bent my head back, wordlessly acquiescing, and closed my eyes as Sasuke again found the point where my pulse beat strongest in my throat, and this time there was no hesitation, beyond the briefest few breaths during which we both savored the moment that would bring us together for-ever. Then his fangs pierced my throat, and I cried out softly, feeling him plunge, with sure force but infinite gentleness, into the vein, drinking me in.

"I love you, Sasuke." I gasped, feeling myself drawn into his body, becoming a part of him. "I always have."

My own fangs were liberated, the ache ending, and when Sasuke was done, my throat burning with an unimaginable, stinging pleasure, he drew me to one of the couches, pulling me onto him so I could reach his throat easily, and it seemed so natural to press my own mouth against him.

"Here, Sakura," Sasuke whispered, softly placing his fingertips beneath my chin, guiding me to the proper spot, and the moment I felt it, his pulse pounding just below the skin, I couldn't wait any longer, and I sank my own fangs deep into him, tasting him, making him a part of me.

Sasuke groaned, pressing me closer, so my fangs punctured more deeply and the blood flowed more swiftly, coursing cool and rich into my mouth. His blood tasted like power and passion touched by sweetness . . . just like Sasuke.

"Oh, Sakura," he whispered, caressing my face and helping me to ease out my still-unfamiliar fangs as I finished drinking, reluctantly. "I have always loved you, too."

* * *

><p>We slept in each other's arms on the couch in front of the fire, exhausted, completely satisfied, completely happy. At least I slept through the night. Sasuke, at some point, arose and slipped away, because when I woke up just before dawn, realizing that I needed to hurry back to my home to destroy the note—before I accidentally abdicated—Sasuke advised me that the young vampire guards had already been dispatched in the wee hours to ensure that my reign did not end unexpectedly early.<p>

And as I lay curled up next to Sasuke, my head on his chest, protected in the circle of his strong arms, fingers testing the tender puncture wounds on my throat, I realized that he had done more than order his minions to do his bidding.

The stake that had fallen to the carpet was gone.

Sasuke never told me what became of it. Whether he'd tossed the reminder of his most violent deed and our darkest moment into the fire, which had been fed during the night, or hid the stake away somewhere in the castle, in case he should ever choose to use it again. And I never asked.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn?"

"Your vampire-form turns me on." I admitted to him, while blushing.

I could feel him smirking, "I know."

"So what next?" I asked unsure.

"We get married but, I doubt you would say yes to my proposal now you would want to be courted, and would like a proposal they comes from heart." He said matter of factly.

"And have kids one day?"

"Of course I'm thinking about 10 kids." I sat up and slapped his chest. He grabbed me and pulled me on top of him with each of my legs on the side of him. We looked at each other for an intense moment not even knowing we were pulling each other into a kiss.

"I love you."

"I love you to."

And with that we kissed in front of the crackling fire and snuggled into each other, seeping in our own comfort.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note:<strong>

**Thank you all for reading my story the name of my epilogue is :Sasuke and Sakura Vampire Family**

**I'll like to give thanks to my fans who have supported me the most through out this story first**

**1-Dino **

**2-ElevatedJewel**

**3-Hitomi Of The Sand **

**4-LadyMartel4000**

**5-Executiion**

**And many many more! Thank you all for supporting my story I will have a epilogue! Also yes Sakura has sex with sasuke i'm thinking about adding a preview**


	60. Epilogue

Epilouge Is coming this friday or saturday

the title is

The Challenges and Life of Being A Vampire Ruler!


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